The Jacquard Loom

http://forum.femmeactuelle.fr/Print
Thread.aspx?ThreadID=450074

In 1801, French silk-weaver Joseph-Marie Jacquard created the Jacquard loom. Jacquard’s new textile loom was the first machine to use punched card.  Joseph was born into a family of weavers, and therefore knew just how long the process of weaving really was. The amount of time that was put into the tedious task of weaving almost eliminated the profit of the fabric, so Joseph sought to invent a loom to speed up the process. The punched cards controlled the weaving, and simplified the textile manufacturing process greatly. The extremely thick cards had rectangular holes punched through them, which guided the hooks and needles used in weaving. The hooks remained stationary when in contact with the card until they came across a hole. Once a hole is encountered, the needle passes through it, inserting thread, and eventually creating a pattern. Jacquard’s loom not only cut back on the amount of human labor, but also allowed for patterns to be stored on cards and to be used over and over again to achieve the same product.

http://www.smith.edu/hsc/silk/History/jacquard.html

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_loom

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_jacquard.htm