Jacquard Punch Card Loom

1800s

National Science Museum [a previous caption stated that this loom resides in the Deutches Museum, but its location in my personal photo archive suggests that I encountered it in London.]

London

Photograph by George P. Landow

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL.]

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 an earlier French wooden Jacquard loom in the collection of the Deutches Museum in Munich, Germany.]

Last modified 3 August 2009