Innovator of the loom that bears his name, Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) developed the first loom to weave designs into cloth. It was also recognized as the first machine to employ the punch-card technology, that would eventually program the computer of the mid-twentieth century.

In the 1700s, the European textile industry and specifically weaving, had not changed for hundreds of years. Using a loom, a weaver created woven fabrics by interlacing two sets of threads--taut lengthwise or "warp" threads that were crosswise, and "weft" or "filling" threads, at right angles. To create wide finished textiles, such as those used for window coverings, narrow lengths of fabric had to be woven by hand. Warp threads were then tautly stretched across the loom's frame, and raised and lowered by the loom's harness, to allow the weft threads to be woven between them. These intricately textured patterns, as well as multi-colored...