Inventions
The Jacquard Loom
zha-KARD
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom that uses a chain of punched cards to control which warp threads are raised for each pass of the shuttle, automating the weaving of intricate patterned fabric that had previously required a draw boy or draw girl to lift threads by hand, and giving industrial machinery its first working example of a program read from a removable, reusable medium.
Facts
Patent or First-Use DateJacquard demonstrated the mechanism in 1801; the loom itself was patented in 1804-05. SignificanceThe Jacquard loom's punched-card control is the acknowledged ancestor of programmable computing: Charles Babbage adapted the same punched-card principle to feed instructions and data into the Analytical Engine, and Herman Hollerith's tabulating machines carried punched cards into twentieth-century data processing. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
In Field
Invented By
Predecessor Of
Charles Babbage explicitly modeled the Analytical Engine's punched-card input on Jacquard's loom.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Jacquard Machine (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationHistory sectionQuote, History section
Joseph Marie Jacquard demonstrated the mechanism in 1801 and patented it in 1804-05.
1. Jacquard Machine (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationLead sectionQuote, Lead section
The Jacquard machine is a device fitted to a loom that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with such complex patterns as brocade, damask and matelassé.
1. Jacquard Machine (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationPredecessor Of: The Analytical EngineView the Source Joseph Marie Jacquard (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationInvented By: Joseph Marie Jacquard, History sectionQuote, Invented By: Joseph Marie Jacquard, History section
The loom was declared public property in 1805, and Jacquard was rewarded with a pension and a royalty on each machine.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.