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By Prof. Dr. Bruno COLMANT, Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium
During the 19th century, the Frenchman Joseph Jacquard (1752-1834) invented the loom by combining several techniques, including a system of punched cards, the ancestor of computer programming punched cards. He devised a mechanism to select and lift individual warp threads according to the desired pattern, controlled by punched cards made of cardboard. The cards were chained together, forming a program for the loom, and the location of the holes on the card determined which threads would be lifted and which pattern would be woven.
There were many social uprisings, including the revolt of the Lyon canuts (canut means weaver and is said to come from bare cane), who rebelled...
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