1-624-432 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Edmund Cartwright, English clergyman and inventor, (1836). Edmund Cartwright (1743-1823) was an Anglican clergyman who lived at Marnham in Nottinghamshire. In 1785 he invented the mechanical loom, the first machine to make practical the weaving of wide cotton cloth. This became known as the parent of the modern power loom. Cartwright also invented a wool combing machine in 1789; a steam engine which used alcohol as fuel in 1797; and he assisted Robert Fulton with his experiments to develop steam navigation.