Programming patterns: the story of the Jacquard loom
The Jacquard loom ties together two of Manchester's most important historic industries: textile manufacturing and computing. Read on to find out how it both revolutionised the production of patterned cloth and also inspired the development of early computing.
A revolutionary invention
When Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a French weaver and merchant, patented his invention in , he revolutionised how patterned cloth could be woven. His Jacquard machine, which built on earlier developments by inventor Jacques de Vaucanson, made it possible for complex and detailed patterns to be manufactured by unskilled workers in a fraction of the time it took a master weaver and his assistant working manually.
The spread of Jacquard's invention caused the cost of fashionable, highly sought-after patterned cloth to plummet. It could now be mass produced, becoming affordable to a wide market of consumers, not only the wealthiest in society.
Punch cards weaving patterns
To weave fabric on a loom, a thread (called the weft) is passed over and under a set of threads (called the warp). It is this interlacing of threads at rig
Joseph Marie Jacquard &#; The Silk Weaver Who Programmed the Loom
I. Introduction
Joseph Marie Charles Jacquard () was a French silk weaver whose pioneering creation &#; the automated programmable loom &#; transformed the textile industry irrevocably. His ingenious use of punch cards to control intricate fabric patterns streamlined silk manufacture, while the binary code system foreshadowed modern computing. This legendary invention, still influencing industries today, secured France‘s textile supremacy in the 19th century.
Yet outside scholarly circles, Jacquard remains surprisingly obscure for a visionary dubbed the "Father of Computing" whose enduring ideas shaped the world much like those of Newton, Laplace or Lavoisier. This biography analyzes how his trailblazing loom revolutionized silk weaving, tracing Jacquard‘s journey from humble artisan to creative genius whose tech still impacts billions globally.
Table 1: Key Milestones in Jacquard‘s Life
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Birth in Lyon, France | |
| Marriage to Claudine Boichon | |
| Invented automated loom prototype with punch card controls | |
Wins patent for loom, destruction of looms
Joseph-Marie Jacquard's Loom Uses Punched Cards to Store PatternsFew details are known for sure about the early career of Joseph-Marie Jacquard of Lyon. He was born into a family of weavers, and some say that he was originally apprenticed as a bookbinder; others say that he was originally a manufacturer of straw hats. In Jacquard received a patent for the automatic loom which he exhibited at the industrial exhibition in Paris in the same year. Jacquard's first patent, No. in the French system of brevets, dated 23 December , was entitled Brevet d'invention de dix ans, Pour une machine destinée à suppléer le tireur de lacs, dans la fabrication des étoffes brochées et façonnées. This patent was first published in print on pp. of Description des machines et procédés spécifiés dans les brevets d'invention de prefectionnement et d'importation, Dont la durée est expirée; Publiée d'après les ordres de Son Excellence le Ministre de l'Intérieur, Par M. Christian, Directeur du Conservatoire royal des Arts et Métiers, Tome Quatrième (). It was a Joseph-Marie JacquardBorn July 7, , Lyons, France, died August 7, , Ouillins, France; in the late eighteenth century Jacquard developed a practical automatic loom which wove patterns controlled by a linked sequence of punched cards; Jacquard looms are still in use today throughout the world. Jacquard's father was a silk weaver and his mother a pattern maker, but he pursued careers as a plasterer, cutler, type founder, and soldier, before he found an interest in his father's loom and began weaving fabric experimentally. His early career was during the period of the French Revolution and so he did not begin seriously to weave until the early years of Napoleon's reign. In Jacquard traveled to England to construct a loom to fabricate fish nets for the London Society of Arts. In February he completed the loom and was presented with the society's gold medal for his services, and FF for his efforts. Napoleon heard of Jacquard's achievements in England and summoned him to Paris to join the Conservatoire des Arts to work on looms for the Republic. Jacquard took the opportunity to study the automatic loom created by Jacques de Vaucanson in , which, in turn, was based on the desig Biographies you may also likeJoseph mitchell biography Joseph Mitchell was a prominent American journalist born on July 27, , in Fairmont, North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina but left before graduating to pursue a . Joseph sinde warioba biography template Alikuwa Waziri Mkuu na Makamu wa Kwanza wa Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania kuanzia tarehe 5 Novemba hadi tarehe 9 Novemba akifuatiwa na Mheshimiwa . Ella and all biography of abraham Abraham, as a sign of the covenant, circumcises himself, Ishmael (now 13) and his entire household (Genesis - 14). God, a short time later, decides to visit Abraham in the form of Missing: ella. Biography on robert scott duncanson signature Read the biography of Robert Scott Duncanson. Discover interesting facts about Robert Scott Duncanson on artnet. Hasan kleib biography of alberta Hasan Kleib Deputy Director General, Regional and National Development Sector at World Intellectual Property Organization – WIPO 5mo EditedMissing: alberta. Georgina campbell actress biography Campbell made history by becoming the first black woman to win the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress thanks to her role in the BBC drama ‘Murdered By My Boyfriend’. . No sacrifice no victory steve jablonsky biography 歌曲名《No Sacrifice, No Victory》，由 Steve Jablonsky 演唱，收录于《Transformers theme》专辑中。《No Sacrifice, No Victory》下载，《No Sacrifice, No Victory》在线试听，更多相关歌 Missing: biography. |