A victim of the Air Loom’s influencing rays, perhaps Matthews himself: a detail from James Tilly Matthews’ illustration of the Air Loom featured in John Haslam’s Illustrations of Madness (1810).
Featured on PDR in the essay Illustrations of Madness: James Tilly Matthews and the Air Loom
Mike Jay recounts the tragic story of James Tilly Matthews, a former peace activist of the Napoleonic Wars who was confined to London's notorious Bedlam asylum in 1797 for believing that his mind was under the control of the “Air Loom” — a terrifying machine whose mesmeric rays and mysterious gases were brainwashing politicians and plunging Europe into revolution, terror, and war.
Also appearing in the essay…
A victim of the air loom’s influencing rays
Artist
Date
1810
From
Illustrations of Madness
