So, sure plenty people recognise this thing. For those that don't, it's a top loading dobby loom, the predecessor to the side lifting dobby you'll find on a modern loom like an AVL.
I'm in charge of about 40 of the things. Anyway, i've always wondered who made these, as people reckoned they were about 200 years old, though some thought that was a fanciful estimate.
Anyhoo, I found a wee plate on one of them, which I'd never noticed before which had written on it "Thomas Kennedy, Maker, Galashiels", so I looked the man up, and found the following entry in the "Galashiels and Selkirk Almanac and Directory for 1889 - 1903"
Thomas Kennedy
Loom, Witch and Shuttle Maker
(All witch machines fitted with Kennedy's Reversing Motion)
How very curious, says I. What is a witch machine when it is at home, stirring a pot and cackling?
Turns out, "witch engine" is a rather old term for this original style of dobby loom, which was originally used (so I understand it from 1 hour on google) around East Anglia in the production of fancy figured cloths, before spreading to the north of England and Scottish Borders prior to the introduction of the Northrop loom and the take up of industrial cloth production.
So, at least we now have a date for the looms here, some of them at least are around 120 years old. Others still are probably cloned from Kennedy's design. The George Wood and Peter Rae looms are certainly clones of this mechanism, and both use the reversing motion, which I take to mean the device which allows one to reverse the direction of the barrel turning when weaving.
Has anyone else come across this term "witch engine"? Or know how it came about. I understand that the machine was invented somewhere between 1820 and 1840 as I have read accounts of industrial troubles and struggles amongst the workers of northern england using these machines. The Jacquard was invented in 1801. I think it's curious how the more baroque and complicated devices and techniques are often discovered before the invention of their simpler counterparts who look as if they are a step in the road between.
Also, Wikipedia states that "Dobby" is a shortening of "Draw-boy", referring to a draw-loom weavers assistant. In which case, it may seem a more appropriate name for a jacquard head, but never mind.