Dictionary of Computers - Jacquard, Joseph Marie

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French textile manufacturer. He invented a punched-card system for programming designs on a silk-weaving loom (the Jacquard loom). In 1801 he constructed looms that used a series of punched cards to control the pattern of longitudinal warp threads depressed before each sideways passage of the shuttle. On later machines the punched cards were joined to form an endless loop that represented the ‘program’ for the repeating pattern of a carpet.

Jacquard-style punched cards were used in the early computers of the 1940s–1960s.

Jacquard was born in Lyon and inherited a small weaving business. He invented the Jacquard loom after becoming bankrupt, and worked on improving it at the Paris Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers from 1804. In Lyon and elsewhere, his machines were smashed by weavers who feared unemployment. By 1812 there were 11,000 Jacquard looms working in France, and they were introduced into many other countries.

Jacquard's attachment for pattern weaving, which was later improved by others, allowed patterns to be woven without the intervention of the weaver. Weavers had always had to plan the pattern before they began their task. This planning now became the essential feature of the weaver's job, and once the pattern had been punched onto cards, it could be used over and over again.

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