Artigianati.com

Jacquard loom

1752: Joseph Marie Jacquard is born in Lyon, France. The weaver and inventor would create the first programmable power loom, revolutionize the weaving industry and lay the foundation for modern data computation.

Jacquard came from a family of silk weavers and went through a bankruptcy and the French Revolution before starting work on an automated, mechanical loom. Weaving then was a long, tedious and repetitive process with little automation. To create a pattern, a drawboy would sit inside a loom and move the threads according to the directions of the weaver.....

Read more at -  http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/07/dayintech_0707