Stock Photo - Power loom weaving, 1834, by Thomas Allom (13 March 1804 – 21 October 1872). He was an English architect, artist, and topographical illustrator. He was a founding member of what became the Royal Institute of British Architects. A power loom is a mechanized loom, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. The first power loom was designed in 1786 by Edmund Cartwright and first built that same year. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by the Howard and Bullough company made the operation completely automatic. This device was designed in 1834 by James Bullough and William Kenworthy, and was named the Lancashire loom.