Jacquard Loom

Student research summary:

by Douglas C.

The Jacquard Loom was invented in 1804 by Joseph Marie Jacquard. It worked by having the punch cards have holes in them, and the holes tells the machine how to make the fabric, which can in turn make clothing. It’s purpose was to take much of the repetitive and tiring work out of make a dress.

Jacquard Loom

By: Morgan F.

The Jacquard system was developed in France in 1804. This new design was an improvement on the original punch-card design from the Jacques de Vaucanson's loom of 1745. This was a real programmable machine, that was controlled by the punch-cards. Once it got a set of instructions by the punch-cards it was then able to make intricate woven patterns. The inventor of the loom was Joseph Marie Jacquard, he invented it in 1801. When Jacquard presented his invention to the French government, they claimed the loom to then be public property. The loom helped the textile industry, and the advance of technology. Because the loom used the punch-card design the looms were able to store the patterns on to the card and then use that card multiple times. This invention also allowed there to be less human labor thus making it less of a hazard for working in the factory. This also made a new passageway for more machines to follow algorithms. Lastly the machine itself symplified the process of manufacturing textiles with such complex patterns as brocades, damask, and matelassé.

The big question is, is the Jacquard loom a robot? In order for the loom to be a robot it would need to have a brain, body, sensors, actuators, program, and behavior. The body of the machine would be the actual loom itself. The brain would be the part that you put the punch-cards into. The sensors of the loom would be the hooks that move the thread and make the patterns. The actuators would be all the hooks and levers that move and form the pattern on the blanket. The program would be the punch-cards that have what the loom should do inscribed on them. The behavior would be the way that the loom moves and forms the patterns, and how they move. So the answer is yes the Jacquard Loom, by Joseph Marie Jacquard made in 1801, is a robot because it exhibits the 6 characteristics of a robot.

The “blueprints” of the loom - BEIC Library

There is some controversy about if Jacquard actually designed the loom. His design was based off of designs from the earlier 1700s, and it was very similar to Jacques de Vaucanson’s design, except it made use of Jean-Baptiste Falcon's individual pasteboard cards, instead of Vaucanson’s “barrel” he used a “card cylinder,” and Jacquard’s loom had 8 rows of needles instead of Vaucanson’s 2 rows.

Jacques de Vaucanson Joseph Marie Jacquard

-Wikipedia -Edubilla.com

The most important thing Joseph Marie Jacquard’s machine did was to pave the road for computer coding. If there is no hole, a thread isn’t put into the fabric. If there is a hole, then a string is put into the fabric. This wasn’t the first use of this “yes” or “no” system, but it further it’s use in machines and it’s still here today, in the form of binary code in computers, with 1s and 0s.


In conclusion, the Jacquard Loom was very important part of history. It started as a way to create clothing, but it furthered the creation of computers and robots in today’s world.

Siting:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/jacquard.html

http://ethw.org/Jacquard_Loom

wikimedia.org