Jacquard Loom
The Jacquard loom was the first automatic loom capable of weaving complex patterns such as tapestry, brocade, and damask. It was able to perform such difficult patterns with the use of punched cards that controlled its operation, although it did no computations based on the cards. Jacquard's mechanical loom used punched cards to program patterns that were output as woven fabrics by the loom. French silk-weaver and inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) invented the loom, which eventually became known as the Jacquard loom, in 1801 when he placed cards on a rolling drum. Jacquard's system greatly improved on the punched-card technology that Jacques de Vaucanson earlier developed for use in his own loom during 1745. The Jacquard loom allowed complex patterns to be created quickly and efficiently for the first time by utilizing interchangeable punched cards that controlled the weaving of the cloth so that any desired pattern could be obtained automatically. As a result of those enhancements, the technology incorporated within the Jacquard loom transformed the 19th century textile industry, and became the inspiration for future calculating and tabulating machines.
Before Jacquard's loom, the process of weaving a particular pattern required that certain parts of the loom be mechanically positioned. To automate this process, Jacquard used a single paper card to represent each positioning of the loom, with holes in the card to indicate which loom actions should be done. Whenever a hole was punched on a card, one of a set of rods could pass through the hole. As a rod passed through the hole it would select a particular thread to be woven into a pattern. Thus, the entire weaving process was controlled by a series of cards with holes punched in them that corresponded to the weave pattern. Extremely elaborate weave patterns could then be produced. As a result, an entire tapestry could be encoded onto a deck of pasteboard punched cards, with the same deck repeatedly yielding the same tapestry design. Programs of over 24,000 cards were eventually developed and used.
In 1833, about thirty year after the invention of the Jacquard loom, British mathematician Charles Babbage adopted Jacquard's punched card idea for data input when he designed his mechanical calculating machine, the Analytical Engine. Although never actually completed it is still considered the first practical design of a general-purpose digital computer. Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace (see Lovelace, Augusta Ada Byron King, Countess of), was instrumental in explaining how to program using punched cards with Babbage's new calculating machine. For her work Ada Byron is commonly called the inventor of programming (and the programming language Ada was named in her honor). During the late 1800s Herman Hollerith was also inspired by the Jacquard loom to use punched cards as an input-output device when he invented his statistical Hollerith's tabulator. The tabulator was used for processing data supplied in the form of holes punched at predetermined locations in cards. Hollerith's tabulator is considered the first commercial punched card calculating machine.
Although Jacquard was presented with an award, and admired by French emperor Napoleon I for his work, he fled for his life when professional weavers threatened him after fearing their jobs were in jeopardy due to his invention. However the loom continued to flourish, and Jacquard looms are still used today, especially in the manufacture of fine furniture fabrics. Jacquard's punched-card-controlled weaving loom helped to launch the use of more elaborate controls and automated processes for devices that were not yet computers, but could easily be considered their precursors.
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