Short answers, pulled from the story.
A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. Its basic purpose is to hold warp threads under tension so that weft threads can be interwoven through them. The precise shape and mechanics vary across loom types, but this fundamental function remains constant.
A loom must perform shedding, picking, and battening. Shedding pulls part of the warp threads aside to open a gap called the shed; picking passes the weft thread through that shed; and battening compresses the new weft against the already-woven fabric to prevent gaps.
The Jacquard loom was invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801. It used punched cards to control individual warp threads and simplify the weaving of complex figured textiles such as brocade and damask. It built on earlier inventions by Basile Bouchon in 1725, Jean Baptiste Falcon in 1728, and Jacques Vaucanson in 1740.
The flying shuttle was patented by John Kay in 1733. It used a picking stick and cords to propel the shuttle across the full width of the shed with a flick of the wrist, allowing a single weaver to produce broadwoven cloth at speeds beyond what hand-throwing allowed. It was one of the key developments that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution by removing manual dexterity from the picking motion and making mechanical power-driven picking viable.
The earliest evidence of a horizontal loom was found on a pottery dish from ancient Egypt, dated to 4400 BC. It was a frame loom already equipped with treadles.
Modern industrial air-jet looms can reach up to 1,500 picks per minute, and overall industrial looms can achieve 2,000 weft insertions per minute. Conventional shuttle looms operate at around 150 to 160 picks per minute, and shuttle-type power looms are capped at a maximum of 300 picks per minute, which is why they are now considered obsolete in modern industrial fabric manufacturing.