Punch Card Loom

Jacquard

Eighteenth century

France

Collection: Deutches Museum, Munich

The Jacquard loom proved important in both the first and second industrial revolutions -- the first because it demonstrated the mechanization of textile production, leading to British cotton factories; the second, because its punch-card control system (used in player pianos and other automata) later proved important in early mainframe computing. [Compare a later metal Jacquard loom]

Photograph by George P. Landow, June 2000