Jacquard Loom: The Holes Decide the Pattern
In 1804 a chain of punched cards began driving a loom. Follow one beat at a time as needles read the holes, only the matching warp threads rise, and the shuttle carries a weft across — swap the cards and the same machine weaves a different cloth, the first physical programmable machine.
1804, a weaver’s shop in Lyon
The device Joseph Marie Jacquard assembled is a small tower riding on top of the loom. Turn the machine in front of you and find the four leads. The chain of punched cards flipping past above. The row of needles pressed against each card. The hooks hanging down to grip the warp threads. And the boat-shaped shuttle running left and right. From here, those four weave a pattern into a single cloth on the cue of holes alone. It is the beginning of the end of the age when a person picked up each thread by hand.
Turn the machine and find all four: cards, needles, warp threads, shuttle.
Advance the beat or let it run, and one card becomes one row of cloth.