Rapier loom
The development of the rapier loom began in 1844, when John Smith of Salford was granted a patent on a loom design that eliminated the shuttle typical of earlier models of looms. Subsequent patents were taken out by Phillippe and Maurice in 1855, W.S. Laycock in 1869, and W. Glover in 1874, with rigid rapiers being perfected by O. Hallensleben in 1899. The main breakthrough came in 1922 when John Gabler invented the principle of loop transfer in the middle of the shed. Flexible rapiers of the type used today were proposed in 1925 by the Spanish inventor R.G. Moya, while R. Dewas introduced the idea of grasping the weft at its tip by the giver or a carrier rapier and transferring it to the taker or a receiver in the middle of the shed. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that rapier weaving became fully commercialized, with loom technology developing rapidly.
History of the rapier loom
To overcome this problem, looms with flexible rapiers have been devised.