During the 1700s, inventors were attempting to automate the process by which patterned textiles were woven--primarily due to the rising demand for fine patterned cloth. It was generally accepted that, for such a machine to work, it must satisfy two requirements. First, it must mechanically simulate the action of hand-lifting the individual warp threads, thus creating the pattern. Second, it must possess some storage medium by which the pattern is "remembered," enabling the weaver to identically duplicate the pattern again and again. Though many devices were constructed throughout the tenth century, none satisfied these requirements as well as the Jacquard loom, patented in 1804 by Joseph-Marie Jacquard.

Jacquard was born in 1752 in Lyons, France. The French silk industry, with which his parents were involved. Young Jacquard, however, found little interest in the textile industry, instead apprenticing himself to a book binder and, later, a cutler. Upon the death of...