Jacquard loom

A Jacquard Loom The Jacquard loom was invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in Lyon in 1801 to weave textiles, mainly silk. It stored weaving programmes in a series of punched cards. Usually, about 4,000 cards were used for each design, though a portrait of Jacquard [see below] needed 24,000 cards. I have seen one of these portraits [in the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Paris] and the quality is remarkable. Automatic looms were already in use but could only produce simple designs. Complex…

1752: Joseph Marie Jacquard is born in Lyon, France. The weaver and inventor would create the first programmable power loom, revolutionize the weaving industry and lay the foundation for modern data computation. Jacquard came from a family of silk weavers and went through a bankruptcy and the French Revolution before starting work on an automated, […]

A Jacquard Loom, invented 1801, considered a precursor to the modern computer. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_loom

Jaguard Loom

powerloom

Jacquard loom

Punch card in an old jacquard loom.:

I’m not alone at Pi Towers (hi Lorna! Hi Rachel!) in being a textiles nerd. There’s a 200-year-old cushion made of strips of worn-out Regency clothes (which nobody is allowed to sit on) in my living room; Mandarin sleeves I’ve rescued from rummage bins in Hong Kong and framed on the walls, and a rotation […]

The Jacquard loom was a significant breakthrough in the history of textile production, an essential manufacturing tool of the Industrial Revolution--and an inspiration for modern computing.