Punched cards, used today to provide data and instructions to computers, were invented in the late eighteenth century by French inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752–1834) and were used to automate the weaving industry in France.

Jacquard was born on July 7, 1752 in a small village near Lyon. Both his parents worked in the weaving trade. At the age of ten, he went to work as a drawboy with his father. Drawboys had the tedious job of maneuvering by hand the weighted cords that controlled the pattern in the weaving of silk fabrics. Jacquard later invented a mechanical device to replace the drawboys. He started working on it in 1790, but his efforts were interrupted by the French Revolution. He finally succeeded in presenting a new silk drawloom at the Paris Exhibition in 1801. He completed an automated loom with punched cards controlling the weaving of very complicated patterns in...