What machine did Leonardo da Vinci design to weave fabric automatically?

Leonardo da Vinci designed an automatic loom to mechanize parts of textile weaving.

Leonardo’s loom studies show his interest in replacing repetitive hand movements with coordinated mechanical action. A loom interlaces lengthwise warp threads with crosswise weft threads, and an automatic design can use cams, gears, and linkages to coordinate those steps.

The drawings belong to Leonardo’s broader investigations of manufacturing machines. They are important because they treat textile production as a sequence that can be analyzed, synchronized, and powered mechanically. Leonardo did not establish the industrial textile system that appeared centuries later, but his sketches anticipated aspects of later automation.

The design should not be confused with the spinning wheel, which twists fibers into yarn, or with later powered looms such as Edmund Cartwright’s. Leonardo’s machine addressed weaving cloth rather than spinning raw fiber.