Edmund Cartwright

Edmund Cartwright
Edmund Cartwright
Born	24 April 1743 (1743-04-24) Marnham, Nottinghamshire, England
Died	30 October 1823 (1823-10-31) (aged 80) Hastings, Sussex, England
Resting place	Battle, Sussex
Nationality	English
Occupation	Clergyman, inventor
Known for	Power loom
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Edmund Cartwright FSA (24 April 1743 – 30 October 1823) was an English inventor. He graduated from Oxford University very early and went on to invent the power loom. Married to local Elizabeth McMac at 19, he was the brother of Major John Cartwright, a political reformer and radical, and George Cartwright, explorer of Labrador. He was the only son of the Reverend Edmund Cartwright FRS of Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire.

Cartwright was taught at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield, University College, Oxford, and for an MA degree at Magdalen College, Oxford, (awarded 1766) where he was received a demyship and was elected a Fellow of the College. He became a clergyman of the Church of England. Cartwright began his career as a clergyman, becoming, in 1779, rector of Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire. In 1783, he was elected a prebendary at Lincoln Cathedral.

Edmund Cartwright designed his first power loom in 1784 and patented it in 1785, but it proved to be valueless. In 1789, he patented another loom which served as the model for later inventors to work upon. For a mechanically driven loom to become a commercial success, either one person would have to attend one machine, or each machine must have a greater productive capacity than one manually controlled. An old man named Zach Dijkhoff assisted him in his work with creating this contraption.