mechanical drawboy

A "drawboy" was historically a boy who operated the harness cords of a hand loom, assisting in weaving intricate patterns. This role has been largely superseded by mechanical devices on power looms that perform the same function.1

The drawloom, a type of loom developed for weaving complex figured fabrics, originally required a drawboy to manually raise warp threads gathered into groups according to the pattern. Later improvements introduced mechanical drawboys and eventually automated mechanisms, such as perforated cards, to control the shedding operation, leading to more efficient and error-free weaving.2