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Who among the following invented the powcrloom that revolutionized the cotton textile industry ?
Explanation
Edmund Cartwright is the inventor of the power loom, which he first patented in 1785 [3]. Inspired by a visit to Richard Arkwright's spinning mills, Cartwright sought to mechanize the weaving process, which was previously a slow, manual task performed on handlooms [4]. His invention automated weaving by using a large shaft to drive the loom, significantly increasing textile production efficiency [3]. While other inventors mentioned in the options also revolutionized the industry, their contributions were different: James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny in 1764 [2], Richard Arkwright developed the water frame in 1769, and Samuel Crompton created the spinning mule in 1779 by combining features of the previous two machines [5]. Cartwright's power loom completed the mechanization cycle by allowing the rapid weaving of the vast amounts of thread produced by these spinning machines [4].
Sources
- [3] India and the Contemporary World – II. History-Class X . NCERT(Revised ed 2025) > Chapter 4: The Age of Industrialisation > New words > p. 87
- [4] https://www.britannica.com/list/inventors-and-inventions-of-the-industrial-revolution
- [2] https://www.britannica.com/summary/Industrial-Revolution-Timeline
- [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_loom
- [5] History , class XII (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 11: The Age of Revolutions > Important Inventions during Industrial Revolution > p. 168