Iron hand carpet loom

Iron hand loom, c 1832. This iron-framed hand loom was in use from 1832 until 1940 for making hand-tufted carpets. It closely resembles the medieval wooden hand looms in which the warp threads are stretched between beams, and rows of woollen tufts are alternated with picks of coarse weft thread inserted by a hand thrown shuttle. The uneven pile was levelled in a shearing machine (1956-176).