By about 2500 bce a more advanced loom was apparently evolving in East Asia. Fragments of silk fabrics found adhering to bronzes of the Shang (or Yin) period (18th–12th centuries) in China show traces of a twill damask pattern, suggesting an advanced weaving knowledge, since such fabrics could not practicably be woven on the looms described above. These fabrics were probably produced on a horizontal frame loom with treadles. The logical connecting link between the horizontal two-bar and the horizontal frame loom with treadles would have been a loom with a heddle rod that was controlled by one foot, for which no early illustrations have been found.

The earliest European pictorial record of the horizontal frame loom with a treadle dates from the 13th century, when it appears in a highly developed form, almost certainly introduced from the East. This two-bar loom was mounted in a frame; to this was connected a treadle operated by the feet, moving the heddles, an improvement of the heddle rod or cord controls now mounted between bars and called a shaft. The advantages of this type of loom were many. First, in the two-bar loom, though more than two heddle rods could be used, the number of groupings of warp threads was limited. Although highly complex patterns could be woven, it was not practical to do so in producing any but very small quantities of cloth. The shaft loom allowed as many as 24 shafts to be set up easily, enabling the weaver to produce comparatively intricate patterns. Second, the weaver’s sword or comb formerly used to beat the weft into place was replaced by the batten, supported in a heavy wooden frame from the main frame of the loom; its weight and free-swinging motion improved the beating-in action and made it easier. Third, use of the foot treadle freed both hands to throw the shuttle and swing the batten. The loom remained virtually unchanged for many centuries thereafter.

Drawlooms

The shaft loom was adequate for plain and for simply patterned fabrics, but a more complex loom was needed for the weaving of intricately figured fabrics, which might require 100 or more shafts. This kind of weaving was accomplished on the drawloom. Its origin is unknown, but it probably was first used in East Asia for silk weaving and was introduced into the silk-working centres of Italy during the Middle Ages. The drawloom had two devices for shedding: in addition to the shafts, which the weaver operated by treadles, cords were also used to raise the warp threads, gathered into groups as required by the pattern. The cords were worked by an operator (called a drawboy) seated on top of the loom.

The drawloom was improved in Italy and France in the early 17th century by the addition of a type of mechanical drawboy, allowing the assistant to stand on the floor at the side of the loom and increasing the control of the cords. The continued inconvenience of employing an assistant, however, who might also make errors, led to a search for an automatic mechanism that would perform all the work of the drawboy. Most of the later developments in automatic mechanisms to control the shedding operation originated in France, which had become one of the leading countries in the weaving of figured silks.

In 1725 Basile Bouchon added to the mechanical drawboy a mechanism that selected the cords to be drawn to form the pattern. Selection was controlled by a roll of paper, perforated according to the pattern, which passed around a cylinder. The cylinder was pushed toward the selecting box and met with needles carrying the warp-controlling cords; the needles that met unperforated paper slid along, and the others passed through the holes and remained stationary. The selected cords were drawn down by a foot-operated treadle.

The mechanical drawboy made the proper selection of warp threads, eliminating errors, but still required an operator. The mechanism was improved in 1728 by increasing the number of needles and using a rectangular perforated card for each individual shedding motion, the cards being strung together in an endless chain. In 1745 Jacques de Vaucanson constructed a loom incorporating a number of improvements. He mounted the selecting box above the loom, where it acted directly on hooks fastened to the cords that controlled the warp yarns. The hooks passed through needles and were raised by a strong metal bar. The needles were selected by perforated cards passing around a sliding cylinder, without the aid of a second operator or assistant. The cylinder was very complex, and the mechanism is not known to have been adopted, but it served as the foundation for the successful Jacquard attachment.