Who invented the treadle loom and where/when?
Try to get hold of a book called The Book of Looms (subtitled A History of the Handloom from Ancient Times to the Present), by Eric Broudy. It was published in the UK by Studio Vista in 1979, and in the USA by Van Nostrand Reinhold, also 1979. The ISBN is 0 289 70873 7. According to this source, treadles were first used with the introduction of silk and cotton weaving in Asia, maybe China, maybe India, maybe as early as 2500 BC. If you include any type of loom that uses the foot/feet to change sheds with a treadling action, there are a variety of looms that developed in parallel. The developed horizontal treadle loom appeared in Europe, about AD 1000, but not much is known about its origins. It’s thought to be only indirectly descended from the east Asian ones, though. There’s some documentary evidence for treadle looms in Egypt, 2nd century BC, There were also treadle looms for narrow band weaving in Africa, around 100 AD, and a similar form is still in use today. So it’s really a pro
