Jacquard loom is the name given to the loom further developed by Joseph-Marie Jacquard. Even in prehistoric times, there were simple looms in many parts of the world. But it was not until 1785 that the Englishman Edmund Cartwright invented the first mechanical loom. Finally, on April 19, 1805, the loom of the French silk weaver Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) brought a considerable improvement. Controlled by one punched card per weft, it raised warp threads individually, thus enabling the weaving of large patterned fabrics (Jacquard patterning). The aperture card system was used for a long time as a data carrier for data acquisition, storage and provision and was an important building block for the further development of data processing. It was not until the introduction of magnetic data capture such as magnetic tape or the floppy disk that the punched card was replaced as a storage medium. The first application in the history of punched card control can be found in 1805. The French inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard heralded an industrial revolution with the further development of the loom programmable with a punched card (the Jacquard loom). He replaced the cam roller of the looms with the endless principle of punched card control, which made it possible to create endless patterns of any complexity. The punch card contained the information about the pattern to be woven. In the original Jacquard loom, the sinker movements were controlled by punched cards. Here, a hole meant „thread lifting“ and no hole meant „feather lowering“. The loom was thus the first programmable machine whose controls could be reused simply by using different punched cards with a different pattern. Indeed, his system set many things in motion. This invention is considered a milestone in automation, and Jacquard already faced fierce opposition from the guilds at the time, who felt their craft was threatened by advancing automation. Despite the fierce resistance, seven years later there were already some 18,000 Jacquard looms in France.
