Flying Shuttle

Mechanical tool installed on a loom for textile weaving, which enables the weft thread to be drawn through the warp more quickly and easily across wider spans. It is an oblong piece of wood with pointed metal ends, a central space with a spool for the thread, and wheels on its underside. A single weaver can propel it back and forth along a track by pulling a cord, eliminating the need for two or more weavers to throw and catch it at either side of the loom — as previously needed for making textiles wider than an arm span. Devised by British engineer John Kay in 1733, it was a major early landmark in the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent automation of weaving, and was soon incorporated into handloom industries beyond Britain and Europe.