Baldwin’s patent consisted of a steel spring and catch made in one piece that fits inside the wooden bobbin. In his patent specification, he claimed this avoided the expense of separate catches and springs that were in the common shuttle as then in use. The arrangement and construction of the spring and catch were such that pushing the bobbin down on the spindle and into the mouth of the shuttle secured the bobbin on the catch. By pulling up on the bobbin, the head of the spindle pushed down on the spring, which in turn disengaged the catch and released the bobbin. These improvements make it easier for the bobbin changer to replenish the shuttle with thread.
An earlier notice of Baldwin’s loom shuttle appears in the Journal of the American Institute. In 1838, at the eleventh Annual Fair of the American Institute, James and E. Baldwin were awarded a diploma for an improved loom shuttle. On May 3, 1859, James Baldwin was successful in having the shuttle awarded Reissue Patent No. 710.
The shuttle and bobbin were integral parts of weaving on a loom. The bobbin carried the weft or filling yarns, which unspooled and interlaced with the warp yarns (stretched on the loom) to make the cloth as the weaver passed the shuttle from side to side, hand to hand. Until the invention of the flying shuttle in 1733, most cloth was only as wide as a weaver could comfortably reach. The new shuttle made it possible to weave wider fabrics, and to weave more quickly. This set the stage for the invention of the power loom, adopted widely in the new American textile mills. By the 1830s textile mills were a major source of employment for young women, a trend which continued through the 20th century. This shuttle and bobbin, for a power loom, were used in the donor’s father’s mill in about 1870.
