Jacquard Loom - Importance To Computing

Importance To Computing

The Jacquard loom was the first machine to use punched cards to control a sequence of operations. Although it did no computation based on them, it is considered an important step in the history of computing hardware. The ability to change the pattern of the loom's weave by simply changing cards was an important conceptual precursor to the development of computer programming. Specifically, Charles Babbage planned to use cards to store programs in his Analytical engine.

  • Austrian Jacquard handloom, end of 19th century, National Museum of textile Industry, Sliven, Bulgaria

  • Close-up view of comber board, harness, mails, weights (Lingoes) and warp with 1040 ends

  • Jacquard loom

  • Punched card loom mechanism in silk-weaving workshop; Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

  • Weaver in a silk-weaving workshop; Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

  • Close-up view of the 8 × 26 hole punched cards—one card per pick (weft) in the fabric

  • Jacquard looms in the Textile Department of the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, Poland.

  • Weaving on a jacquard loom with a flying shuttle at the Textile Department of the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, Poland.

  • Following the pattern, holes are punched in the appropriate places on a jacquard card at The Department of Textile Art at Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, Poland.

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