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Jacquard Punch Card Loom

1700s

Deutches Museum,

Munich, Germany

Photograph by George P. Landow

[This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose.]

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]

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Last modified: 20 October 2004