Not being a weaver I get confused in talking about the various types of looms and weaving. To begin with, the definition of 'inkle' is "a linen tape used for trimmings". So, an inkle loom would seem to be a loom for weaving inkles, but inkles were apparently being woven on other simple looms before the modern version, which we now call an inkle loom, was developed.
Here's an interesting bit from a book by Alice Morris Earle, HOME LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS:
Originally published in 1898; American Classics Edition by Berkshire House Publishers, Stockbridge MA:1993: ISBN 0-936399-22-8: pg. 225 - 227.
"Smaller looms, called tape-looms, braid-looms, belt-looms, garter-looms, or "gallus-frames," were seen in many American homes and useful they were in days when linen, cotton, woollen, or silk tapes, bobbins, and webbings or ribbons were not common and cheap as to-day (1898). Narrow bands such as tapes, none-so-pretty's, ribbons, caddises, ferretings, inkles, were woven on these looms for use for garters, points, glove-ties, hair-laces, shoestrings, belts, hat-bands, stay-laces, breeches-suspenders, etc.... They are scarcely more than a slightly shaped board so cut in slits that the centre of the board is a row of narrow slats. These slats are pierced in a row by means of a heated wire and the warp-threads are passed through the holes. A common form of braid-loom was one that was laid upon a table. A still simpler form was held upright on the lap, the knees being firmly pressed into semicircular indentations cut for the purpose on either side of the board which formed the lower part of the loom. The top of the loom was steadied by being tied with a band to the top of a chair, or a hook in the wall."
Wouldn't it be the case that whichever of those simple looms was used to weave inkles could fairly be called an inkle loom?
Spence
