The grande tire drawloom: the design as a set of cords and the work of the drawboy
A loom on which the design is held not in the shafts but in a set of cords: each cord lifts its own group of warp threads. Two people work, the weaver and the drawboy (French tireur) who pulls the cords in the order the design requires.
The Lyon version is associated with the French master Claude Dangon (around 1605). He raised the number of cords to about two thousand four hundred against the earlier eight hundred, and Lyon became able to weave large figured silks on a par with the Italians.
What matters more than the richness of the cloth is the arrangement of the work: the design is already recorded apart from the machine and apart from the weaver, yet it is a human being who executes the record. The second worker cost money and made mistakes, and the whole 18th century was spent searching for a device that would do his work by itself. A straight line runs from there to Bouchon's punched tape and to the Jacquard loom.
Why this date
Approximate, and it refers to the Lyon version rather than to the loom type in general. The Museum of the History of Lyon states that the grande tire loom appears at Lyon about 1605; in 1607 Claude Dangon received the title of royal master workman and a five year privilege from Henri IV. The drawloom itself is far older: according to Britannica its origin is unknown, probably East Asian, and it reached the Italian silk centres in the Middle Ages. The date here belongs to the Lyon loom because it was that loom which the Jacquard machine replaced two hundred years later.
What grew out of it
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Selecting the cords by a perforated paper roll (Bouchon)
improved · Confidence: high
Bouchon built no new loom but added his device to the mechanical drawboy already working on the figured loom: the perforated roll took the place of the person who selected the cords.
Link sources
- Britannica, «Textile: Horizontal frame looms» Verified 20 Sep 2026
In 1725 Basile Bouchon added to the mechanical drawboy a mechanism that selected the cords to be drawn to form the pattern.
- Britannica, «Textile: Horizontal frame looms» Verified 20 Sep 2026
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.
- Britannica, «Textile: Horizontal frame looms» Verified 20 Sep 2026
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.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.
- Britannica, «Textile: Horizontal frame looms» Verified 20 Sep 2026
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The punched-card loom (Jacquard machine)
improved · Confidence: high
The Jacquard machine is an attachment to the same figured loom, replacing the drawboy: the search for such a device began, according to Britannica, precisely because of the inconvenience and errors of the second worker, while at Lyon the grande tire loom survived until Jacquard and was gradually displaced by him.
Dispute: The replacement was slow and not a single victory: the Museum of the History of Lyon writes that the grande tire loom was used with gradual improvements right up to the arrival of the Jacquard mechanism and was displaced by it gradually. Moreover the Jacquard machine has two parents, and the sources do not undertake to apportion them: the selecting device comes from the Bouchon-Falcon-Vaucanson line, while the loom itself, with its cords, heddles and harness, comes from the drawloom.
Link sources
- Britannica, «Textile: Horizontal frame looms» Verified 20 Sep 2026
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.
- Musées Gadagne (Musée d'histoire de Lyon), «Métier à la grande tire» Verified 20 Sep 2026
Il est utilisé, avec des améliorations progressives, jusqu'à l'arrivée de la mécanique du métier Jacquard au début du 19e siècle qui le remplace progressivement.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.
- Britannica, «Textile: Horizontal frame looms» Verified 20 Sep 2026
Links under review
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The loom that stores the pattern in a set of shafts (the Laoguanshan models)
influenced · Confidence: medium
The sources speak of the drawloom in general and take it only as far as medieval Italy; the link to the specific Lyon loom of 1605 is an editorial assumption.
The authors of the publication on the Han models hold that this loom was the basis of the invention of the draw loom, which was then introduced to the West; the Lyon grande tire loom of 1605 is a late western form of the drawloom; the sources do not trace the chain of transmission link by link.
Dispute: A dispute about the origin of the drawloom. The authors of the Antiquity paper, and on their account Needham and James, derive it from China; Britannica is more cautious and says the origin is unknown and an East Asian first use only probable. No source sets out the chain of transmission step by step: seventeen centuries lie between the Han find and the Lyon loom, and the links are not traced. This is therefore an influence traced through the construction of the machine, not a direct descent.
Link sources
- Zhao F., Wang Y., Luo Q., Long B., Zhang B., Xia Y., Xie T., Wu S., Xiao L. «The earliest evidence of pattern looms: Han Dynasty tomb models from Chengdu, China», Antiquity 91 (356), 2017, 360-374, DOI 10.15184/aqy.2016.267 (2017) Verified 20 Sep 2026
We believe that this shaft pattern loom was the basis for the invention of the draw loom, which was then introduced to the West.
- Zhao F. et al. (2017) Verified 20 Sep 2026
We believe that this shaft pattern loom was the basis for the invention of the draw loom, which was then introduced to the West (Persia, India and Europe), indicating that the Chinese silk pattern loom made a significant contribution to the subsequent development of world textile culture and weaving technology.
- Zhao F., Wang Y., Luo Q., Long B., Zhang B., Xia Y., Xie T., Wu S., Xiao L. «The earliest evidence of pattern looms: Han Dynasty tomb models from Chengdu, China», Antiquity 91 (356), 2017, 360-374, DOI 10.15184/aqy.2016.267 (2017)
Many scholars, such as Needham and James, attribute the invention of the pattern loom or draw loom to ancient China.
- Zhao F., Wang Y., Luo Q., Long B., Zhang B., Xia Y., Xie T., Wu S., Xiao L. «The earliest evidence of pattern looms: Han Dynasty tomb models from Chengdu, China», Antiquity 91 (356), 2017, 360-374, DOI 10.15184/aqy.2016.267 (2017) Verified 20 Sep 2026
the design of the machine influenced the invention of later looms and the spread of technology throughout Eurasia and Europe
- Britannica, «Textile: Horizontal frame looms» Verified 20 Sep 2026
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.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.
- Zhao F., Wang Y., Luo Q., Long B., Zhang B., Xia Y., Xie T., Wu S., Xiao L. «The earliest evidence of pattern looms: Han Dynasty tomb models from Chengdu, China», Antiquity 91 (356), 2017, 360-374, DOI 10.15184/aqy.2016.267 (2017) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Node sources
- Musées Gadagne (Musée d'histoire de Lyon), «Métier à la grande tire» Verified 20 Sep 2026
Le métier à la grande tire apparaît à Lyon vers 1605.
- Musée des Arts et Métiers (CNAM), «Métier à tisser à grande tire» Verified 20 Sep 2026
L'un des modèles évoque la première étape de ce processus avec l'adoption, dans les premières années du XVIIe siècle, du métier à tisser à la grande tire. Conçu par le soyeux lyonnais Claude Dangon (milieu du XVIe siècle-1631), ce type de métier comporte des cordes horizontales et verticales appelées lacs qui lèvent ou abaissent les fils de chaîne.
- Musée des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Deux opérateurs au moins étaient nécessaires pour actionner ce métier : un tisseur et un ou plusieurs tireurs de lacs.
- Musée des Arts et Métiers (CNAM), «Métier à tisser à grande tire» Verified 20 Sep 2026
multiplier le nombre de cordes (jusqu'à deux mille quatre cents au lieu de huit cents auparavant)
- Britannica, «Textile: Horizontal frame looms» Verified 20 Sep 2026
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.
- Britannica, «Textile: Horizontal frame looms» Verified 20 Sep 2026
The cords were worked by an operator (called a drawboy) seated on top of the loom.
- Britannica, «Textile: Horizontal frame looms» Verified 20 Sep 2026
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.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.