The Jacquard machine is a device fitted to a loom that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with such complex patterns as brocade, damask and matelassé. The resulting ensemble of the loom and Jacquard machine is then called a Jacquard loom. The machine was patented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1804, based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728), and Jacques Vaucanson (1740). The machine was controlled by a "chain of cards"; a number of punched cards laced together into a continuous sequence. Multiple rows of holes were punched on each card, with one complete card corresponding to one row of the design.
This portrait of Jacquard was woven in silk on a Jacquard loom and required 24,000 punched cards to create (1839). It was only produced to order. Charles Babbage owned one of these portraits; it inspired him in using perforated cards in his Analytical Engine. It is in the collection of the Science Museum in London, England.
A Jacquard loom showing information punchcards, National Museum of Scotland
A schematic diagram of the Jacquard system
19th century Engineering drawing of a Jacquard loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function is the same.
A treadle-driven Hattersley & Sons Domestic Loom, built under licence in 1893, in Keighley, Yorkshire. This loom has a flying shuttle and automatically rolls up the woven cloth; it is not just controlled but powered by the pedals.
A woman in Konya, Turkey, works at a vertical loom
A simple handheld frame loom
A Turkish carpet loom showing warp threads wrapped around the warp beam, above, and the fell being wrapped onto the cloth beam below.
