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Jacquard's Web: How a Hand-Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age
In Jacquard's Web , James Essinger tells the story of some of the most brilliant inventors the world has ever known, in this fascinating account of how a hand-loom invented in Napoleonic France led to the development of the modern information age.
Essinger, a master story-teller, describes how Joseph-Marie Jacquard's loom enabled the silk-weavers of Lyons to weave fabrics 25 times faster than had previously been possible. The device used punched cards, which stored instructions for weaving whatever pattern or design was required. These
cards can very reasonably be described as the world's first computer programs. Indeed, Essinger shows through a series of remarkable and meticulously researched historical connections--connections never before investigated--that the Jacquard loom kick-started a process of scientific evolution which
would lead directly to the development of the modern computer. The book examines a wealth of extraordinary links between the nineteenth-century world of weaving and today's computer for example, modern computer graphics displays are based on exactly the same principles as those employed in
Jacquard's special woven tableaux. Jacquard's Web also introduces some of the most colorful and interesting characters in the history of science and the modest but exceptionally dedicated Jacquard himself; the brilliant but temperamental Victorian polymath Charles Babbage, who dreamed of
a cogwheel computer operated using Jacquard cards; and the imaginative and perceptive Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's only legitimate daughter.
Attractively illustrated and compellingly narrated, Jacquard's Web is an engaging and delightful volume. It is an impressive case of historical detective work, one that will leave the reader mesmerized.
Essinger, a master story-teller, describes how Joseph-Marie Jacquard's loom enabled the silk-weavers of Lyons to weave fabrics 25 times faster than had previously been possible. The device used punched cards, which stored instructions for weaving whatever pattern or design was required. These
cards can very reasonably be described as the world's first computer programs. Indeed, Essinger shows through a series of remarkable and meticulously researched historical connections--connections never before investigated--that the Jacquard loom kick-started a process of scientific evolution which
would lead directly to the development of the modern computer. The book examines a wealth of extraordinary links between the nineteenth-century world of weaving and today's computer for example, modern computer graphics displays are based on exactly the same principles as those employed in
Jacquard's special woven tableaux. Jacquard's Web also introduces some of the most colorful and interesting characters in the history of science and the modest but exceptionally dedicated Jacquard himself; the brilliant but temperamental Victorian polymath Charles Babbage, who dreamed of
a cogwheel computer operated using Jacquard cards; and the imaginative and perceptive Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's only legitimate daughter.
Attractively illustrated and compellingly narrated, Jacquard's Web is an engaging and delightful volume. It is an impressive case of historical detective work, one that will leave the reader mesmerized.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published October 28, 2004
22 people are currently reading
317 people want to read
About the author
James Essinger
44 books32 followersHi! My name is James Essinger and I'm a writer of fiction and non-fiction.
In my fiction I have a particular interest in personal relationships, travel, history, information technology and chess.
In my non-fiction I have a particular interest in the history of computing, and in language.
I was born in Leicester in the English Midlands in 1957 and I attended Overdale Junior School in Leicester and also Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys. After a year between school and university, I studied English Language and Literature at Lincoln College, which is part of the University of Oxford.
After leaving university I taught English in Finland for three nine-month sessions. I learnt Finnish, and I still speak Finnish fairly fluently. I also speak German and French.
My interests, aside from writing, include: my friends, movies, travel, chess and history.
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October 16, 2020
If you open a terminal window in Linux or Windows, it defaults to 80 columns. Why? “This comes from the standard Visual Display Unit (VDU) size of 80 columns in width, which in turn was originally designed to allow the display of a complete 80-column punched card.” (p. 252) But where does the punch card come from? Ah, therein lies the tale.
Joseph Marie Jacquard was born into a moderately prosperous silk weaving family, became impoverished, fought first for the monarchy and then for the republic during the French revolution, and later turned his attention to improving the machines of his day. He became the greatest inventor of his time, inventing a machine for weaving fishing nets which won first prize in a national competition, and then turning his attention to the drawloom which had been in use for centuries.
The drawloom was a two person operation. One stood on top of it and manually raised the hooks holding certain threads so that the person below could pass the shuttle through and create a pattern. It was a slow process, and even experienced loom operators could only do about two “picks” a minute. Jacquard’s stoke of genius was to control the hooks with paper cards punched with holes. Where there was a hole the rod with the hook passed through, lifting the thread; where there was no hole the rod was stopped. The average design had about 4000 cards, which were sewn together in a loop, with a new card put in place after each pull of the shuttle.
The Jacquard loom was an immediate success, although like all progress it had a downside, since it put the draw-boys on the tops of the old style looms out of business, and there is a story that when some of them encountered Jacquard on the street, they tossed him in the river.
The story of punched cards then moves forward to Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace. Babbage was a brilliant but irascible inventor who never managed to finish any of his marvelous machines. He would get partway along, then come up with an idea for an even better design and immediately stop what he was working on to begin the new one. This did not lead to good relations with his investors, and eventually they gave up on him as a hopeless visionary. Ada Lovelace became his assistant and collaborator, and tried to become his public face to the world so that he would stop being seen as impossible to work with, but his vanity would not permit such an arrangement.
In any case his machines could never have been built in his time, because they required a level of precision machining that was simply not possible on a large scale. In 2000, however, one of his computing machine was built from his drawings, a marvel of thousands of wheels and cogs, and it works exactly as intended. Babbages’ other machines never reached the stage of complete drawings, and his writings on them do not provide enough detail to attempt to build working versions, but it was here that Lady Lovelace conceived the idea of using punch cards to control the operation, which would include storage of intermediate results and sophisticated algebraic operations. The original idea was that the machine would directly print mathematical tables, eliminating human error when making the calculations or when setting them in type. She wrote of Babbage’s machine as “a kind of Jacquard’s loom that ‘weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves’.” (p. 160)
The next major figure in the history of punched card computer is Herman Hollerith, who got into the business after having worked on the 1880 census, where everything was tabulated manually and it took years to finally produce results. As the country continue to grow there was a concern that if the 1890 census was analyzed the same way, results would not be available until after the 1900 census was underway. Hollerith’s machines transcribed the census data onto his cards, which could then be sorted and collated for any analysis required. It was a huge success, but Hollerith’s fortune was not assured. There were other competitors in the business, some with machines that could do the same things. Also, there was no business market for his punched cards yet, so the United States, and later other countries, wanted to rent the machines rather than buy them since they were only used once per decade.
The business was saved when it was bought and merged with other companies starting to develop office automation tools, and Thomas Watson was hired to run the new company. He brought his own genius for business and the new company, renamed International Business Machines (IBM) took off and became the gold standard for computers. As an aside, in the early 1990s, I was on a team evaluating bids for new computer systems and the person leading the group chose the IBM proposal even though it was more expensive than bids from DEC or HP. His rationale was, “nobody every got fired for choosing IBM.”
The punch card systems got faster and more sophisticated. From being able to read 3000 cards per minute in the 1920s they would eventually reach 40,000. Into this scene stepped Howard Aiken, a mechanical engineering genius. He saw that the machines could be used not just for sorting and reporting information, but as computing systems themselves. His idea to build such as system was turned down by other companies, but Watson of IBM was intrigued by it and approved it over the objections of his board of directors. The project faced numerous delays and cost overruns as existing systems were adapted for computing and new ones had to be developed from scratch, and it might have been canceled altogether but for the coming of World War II. Suddenly there was money in almost unlimited amounts for anything that would help the war effort and, just as in Babbage’s time, what the army and navy needed was a machine that could accurately calculate mathematical tables, in this case for artillery ballistics.
Work began on what would eventually be known as the Harvard Mark 1.
However, because there was so much money floating around, the army also invested in a backup solution offered by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania. This was ENIAC, an electronic rather than mechanical computer. Eventually there were four versions of the Harvard mechanical computer, but it was clear that the future was with electronics. “ENIAC was able to perform 5000 operations per second compared to the three per second of the Harvard Mark 1.” (p 247)
And so punch cards were given a new function as the input system for the age of computers, and IBM manufactured the last ones as late as 1984. Anyone of a certain age can remember when utility bills came on punched cards with instructions not to “bend, fold, tear, spindle or mutilate.” The first computer language I ever learned was Fortran on a punch card system running on a late version of IBM’s iconic 360 computer. And though the book does not mention it, many people can remember when government checks, such as tax refunds, came on those 3 ¼ by 7 3/8 inch cards. Why was that?, because that was the size of a Hollerith card, and it was chosen because it was the size of United States currency when the first Hollerith machines came out.
There is a lot of interesting information in this book about the machines that contributed to today’s age of computing, and about the often quirky or downright odd people who possessed the skill and drive to see a future that was invisible to most. There are some very good videos available on the internet which show the evolutionary systems discussed in this book, and they can help with visualizing the processes involved.
Joseph Marie Jacquard was born into a moderately prosperous silk weaving family, became impoverished, fought first for the monarchy and then for the republic during the French revolution, and later turned his attention to improving the machines of his day. He became the greatest inventor of his time, inventing a machine for weaving fishing nets which won first prize in a national competition, and then turning his attention to the drawloom which had been in use for centuries.
The drawloom was a two person operation. One stood on top of it and manually raised the hooks holding certain threads so that the person below could pass the shuttle through and create a pattern. It was a slow process, and even experienced loom operators could only do about two “picks” a minute. Jacquard’s stoke of genius was to control the hooks with paper cards punched with holes. Where there was a hole the rod with the hook passed through, lifting the thread; where there was no hole the rod was stopped. The average design had about 4000 cards, which were sewn together in a loop, with a new card put in place after each pull of the shuttle.
The astonishing truth is that the Jacquard loom enabled decorated fabric to be woven about twenty-four times more quickly than the drawloom. Whereas in the past even the most skilled weaver and draw-boy duo could only manage two rows or picks of woven fabric every minute, a skilled lone weaver using the Jacquard loom could manage to fit in an average of about forty-eight picks per minute of working time.” (p. 38)
The Jacquard loom was an immediate success, although like all progress it had a downside, since it put the draw-boys on the tops of the old style looms out of business, and there is a story that when some of them encountered Jacquard on the street, they tossed him in the river.
The story of punched cards then moves forward to Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace. Babbage was a brilliant but irascible inventor who never managed to finish any of his marvelous machines. He would get partway along, then come up with an idea for an even better design and immediately stop what he was working on to begin the new one. This did not lead to good relations with his investors, and eventually they gave up on him as a hopeless visionary. Ada Lovelace became his assistant and collaborator, and tried to become his public face to the world so that he would stop being seen as impossible to work with, but his vanity would not permit such an arrangement.
In any case his machines could never have been built in his time, because they required a level of precision machining that was simply not possible on a large scale. In 2000, however, one of his computing machine was built from his drawings, a marvel of thousands of wheels and cogs, and it works exactly as intended. Babbages’ other machines never reached the stage of complete drawings, and his writings on them do not provide enough detail to attempt to build working versions, but it was here that Lady Lovelace conceived the idea of using punch cards to control the operation, which would include storage of intermediate results and sophisticated algebraic operations. The original idea was that the machine would directly print mathematical tables, eliminating human error when making the calculations or when setting them in type. She wrote of Babbage’s machine as “a kind of Jacquard’s loom that ‘weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves’.” (p. 160)
The next major figure in the history of punched card computer is Herman Hollerith, who got into the business after having worked on the 1880 census, where everything was tabulated manually and it took years to finally produce results. As the country continue to grow there was a concern that if the 1890 census was analyzed the same way, results would not be available until after the 1900 census was underway. Hollerith’s machines transcribed the census data onto his cards, which could then be sorted and collated for any analysis required. It was a huge success, but Hollerith’s fortune was not assured. There were other competitors in the business, some with machines that could do the same things. Also, there was no business market for his punched cards yet, so the United States, and later other countries, wanted to rent the machines rather than buy them since they were only used once per decade.
The business was saved when it was bought and merged with other companies starting to develop office automation tools, and Thomas Watson was hired to run the new company. He brought his own genius for business and the new company, renamed International Business Machines (IBM) took off and became the gold standard for computers. As an aside, in the early 1990s, I was on a team evaluating bids for new computer systems and the person leading the group chose the IBM proposal even though it was more expensive than bids from DEC or HP. His rationale was, “nobody every got fired for choosing IBM.”
The punch card systems got faster and more sophisticated. From being able to read 3000 cards per minute in the 1920s they would eventually reach 40,000. Into this scene stepped Howard Aiken, a mechanical engineering genius. He saw that the machines could be used not just for sorting and reporting information, but as computing systems themselves. His idea to build such as system was turned down by other companies, but Watson of IBM was intrigued by it and approved it over the objections of his board of directors. The project faced numerous delays and cost overruns as existing systems were adapted for computing and new ones had to be developed from scratch, and it might have been canceled altogether but for the coming of World War II. Suddenly there was money in almost unlimited amounts for anything that would help the war effort and, just as in Babbage’s time, what the army and navy needed was a machine that could accurately calculate mathematical tables, in this case for artillery ballistics.
Work began on what would eventually be known as the Harvard Mark 1.
The complete machine was a wonderful piece of engineering. Fifty-one feet long, eight feet high, and two feet wide, it weighed more than five tons. Altogether it contained more than 750,000 parts and hundreds of miles of wiring...The machine could store up to seventy-two numbers in its memory. It was capable of three additions or subtractions a second. A complex multiplication took six seconds, while calculating a logarithmic or trigonometrical function required about a minute. (p. 226-227)
However, because there was so much money floating around, the army also invested in a backup solution offered by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania. This was ENIAC, an electronic rather than mechanical computer. Eventually there were four versions of the Harvard mechanical computer, but it was clear that the future was with electronics. “ENIAC was able to perform 5000 operations per second compared to the three per second of the Harvard Mark 1.” (p 247)
And so punch cards were given a new function as the input system for the age of computers, and IBM manufactured the last ones as late as 1984. Anyone of a certain age can remember when utility bills came on punched cards with instructions not to “bend, fold, tear, spindle or mutilate.” The first computer language I ever learned was Fortran on a punch card system running on a late version of IBM’s iconic 360 computer. And though the book does not mention it, many people can remember when government checks, such as tax refunds, came on those 3 ¼ by 7 3/8 inch cards. Why was that?, because that was the size of a Hollerith card, and it was chosen because it was the size of United States currency when the first Hollerith machines came out.
There is a lot of interesting information in this book about the machines that contributed to today’s age of computing, and about the often quirky or downright odd people who possessed the skill and drive to see a future that was invisible to most. There are some very good videos available on the internet which show the evolutionary systems discussed in this book, and they can help with visualizing the processes involved.
June 16, 2019
Really good high-level overview of the role of Jacquard's brilliant concept and invention. I would have liked a bit more detail with every milestone that benefitted, but I realize that can be gained by other source mat'l.
January 21, 2023
An account of how the invention of a weaving machine led to the birth of computers.
Welp. Chalk this one up on the list of books on fascinating subjects that are poorly written. So disappointing. It reads like an amateurish dissertation, with lots of unnecessary rehashing and arguments made too forcefully (ex: Essinger, in a discussion of an image he shares of an invoice for Charles Babbage's purchase of one of Jacquard's woven portraits, says both that, "This clearly shows the sum he paid - 200 francs," and then later on the same page, "It seems quite clear that Babbage kept the invoice as a record of having purchased the woven portrait and of how much it cost him." I...could not possibly care less how much Mr. Babbage paid for the thing, for sobbing out loud. And dude, just let the thing speak for itself - I'm not an idiot; I can read the invoice. Move on, maybe. And there were moments like this throughout. It made me feel like I was supposed to be grading it as a student paper instead of enjoying a published work on an interesting topic. Gah.
Welp. Chalk this one up on the list of books on fascinating subjects that are poorly written. So disappointing. It reads like an amateurish dissertation, with lots of unnecessary rehashing and arguments made too forcefully (ex: Essinger, in a discussion of an image he shares of an invoice for Charles Babbage's purchase of one of Jacquard's woven portraits, says both that, "This clearly shows the sum he paid - 200 francs," and then later on the same page, "It seems quite clear that Babbage kept the invoice as a record of having purchased the woven portrait and of how much it cost him." I...could not possibly care less how much Mr. Babbage paid for the thing, for sobbing out loud. And dude, just let the thing speak for itself - I'm not an idiot; I can read the invoice. Move on, maybe. And there were moments like this throughout. It made me feel like I was supposed to be grading it as a student paper instead of enjoying a published work on an interesting topic. Gah.
June 25, 2013
I really enjoyed this slim book. It paints a convincing picture of how 5? men (and one very important woman, Lord Byron's daughter!) directly shaped the technology of the early punch-card computer, beginning with the crucial Jacquard loom in France around the turn of the 19th century.
August 12, 2019
I enjoyed the way James told the story based on history facts, personal deep thoughts and feelings, which made it so readable for general audience who don't have strong computer technical background. I am curious what promoted he wrote the story. Well-done!
To sum the book, two paragraphs of the book are cited:
"The remarkable resemblance between a piece of fabric woven in silk and a computer graphic shows yet again that weaving and computing are closely related expressions of the same human desire: to capture reality within a mechanism where the process is, at a fundamental level, limited to just two possible modes: yes or no, color or blank, stitch or no stitch, weaving, like modern computing, is indeed at heart a digital process.
A vision encompassing the decentralized, organic growth of ideas, technology and society. the vision I have for the web is about anything being potentially connected with anything. It is a vision that provides us with new freedom, and allows us to grow faster than we even could when we were fettered by the hierarchical classification systems into which we bound ourselves. It leaves the entirety of our previous ways of working as just one tool among many. It leaves our previous fears for the future as one set among many. and it brings the workings of society closer to the workings of our minds. "
To sum the book, two paragraphs of the book are cited:
"The remarkable resemblance between a piece of fabric woven in silk and a computer graphic shows yet again that weaving and computing are closely related expressions of the same human desire: to capture reality within a mechanism where the process is, at a fundamental level, limited to just two possible modes: yes or no, color or blank, stitch or no stitch, weaving, like modern computing, is indeed at heart a digital process.
A vision encompassing the decentralized, organic growth of ideas, technology and society. the vision I have for the web is about anything being potentially connected with anything. It is a vision that provides us with new freedom, and allows us to grow faster than we even could when we were fettered by the hierarchical classification systems into which we bound ourselves. It leaves the entirety of our previous ways of working as just one tool among many. It leaves our previous fears for the future as one set among many. and it brings the workings of society closer to the workings of our minds. "
June 17, 2017
The subtitle "How a hand loom led to the birth of the information age" makes it clear what you're getting into. Pretty much in the style of James Burke's "Connections", this book tells the story of the development of technology from Jacquard's punched-card controlled silk loom, through Babbage's attempt to build the Difference Engine and Analytical Engine, Ada Lovelace's involvement in popularizing Babbage's work, Hollerith's invention of punched card tabulators, IBM's business machines, and Aiken's Harvard Mark I computer. The punched card theme is the thread that holds the whole story together. There are other books that give a more comprehensive prehistory of the digital computer, but this book is quite readable.
The author dives into the controversy about just how much Ada actually understood about programming the analytical engine and contributed to its development. He comes to the conclusion that her contribution was in writing a popular account of the analytical engine rather than the technology itself.
The author dives into the controversy about just how much Ada actually understood about programming the analytical engine and contributed to its development. He comes to the conclusion that her contribution was in writing a popular account of the analytical engine rather than the technology itself.
February 23, 2019
Very good book overall and a very nice micro-history of the relationship between the Jacquard loom and Babbage and the world of computers. It has a few tiny mis-statements near the end and it scrunches a bunch of the recent history of computers into what should like have been an afterward, but it also has some well balanced gems about Ada Lovelace and Thomas Watson and others in the 2oth century computer world. What is really amazing is how little things have changed from what Jacquard and Babbage (and Lovelace) tried to do with less viable equipment. Definitely worth reading if you want to put some life into the history of computing or if you just like the juncture of technology and science.
February 11, 2022
COmPuTErS ARE lOOmS thAT Weave INformATion
You can tell the Essinger really likes this metaphor because he beats it to death.
It's not a great book. It spends a paragraph talking about the Jacquard loom, and then spends a chapter talking about his dad, and then three chapters talking about Babbage, and then zooms through IBM. There's a teensy mension of Turing, but none of Church, or von Neumann, or Hopper, or of Bell Labs, or anything like that. It's just a collection of people who like punch cards and their dads. Lots of dads.
The book has a frustrating habit of quoting other biographies, and telling us how nothing is known about these people, and quoting long passages from Charles Dickens because it was inspired by Babbage, and, of course, about everyone's dad. And the book never seems to be on any of the subject matters' sides --- it's often talking about how politically stupid they were, and how its their own fault for these things, and stuff like that. Maybe it's true, but it's not why we're here.
You can tell the Essinger really likes this metaphor because he beats it to death.
It's not a great book. It spends a paragraph talking about the Jacquard loom, and then spends a chapter talking about his dad, and then three chapters talking about Babbage, and then zooms through IBM. There's a teensy mension of Turing, but none of Church, or von Neumann, or Hopper, or of Bell Labs, or anything like that. It's just a collection of people who like punch cards and their dads. Lots of dads.
The book has a frustrating habit of quoting other biographies, and telling us how nothing is known about these people, and quoting long passages from Charles Dickens because it was inspired by Babbage, and, of course, about everyone's dad. And the book never seems to be on any of the subject matters' sides --- it's often talking about how politically stupid they were, and how its their own fault for these things, and stuff like that. Maybe it's true, but it's not why we're here.
February 2, 2023
A very readable and informative book describing the lead-up to development of computers. In the late 1700s weaving a design into silk fabric was a slow process. It was hard to keep up with demand. Then Joseph-Marie Jacquard created a new, improved loom that used punched cards. It had a huge impact on the fabric industry. It was also the precursor to the computer. The book leads us step by step, inventor after inventor, from Jacquard’s use of punched cards to the punched cards eventually used in the computers that some of us remember using. I found the book quite enjoyable, but you might need to have an interest in the history of computers to enjoy it as much as I did.
March 20, 2022
A very interesting book on the relationship of Jacquard's punch cards and modern computers. Essinger explains that by borrowing punch card technology from the weaving industry enabled inventors to create a computer industry. If you are interested in weaving, or in how the computers came to be, this is a needed book to read.
November 1, 2019
The narrator can be dramatically hyperbolic when describing the impact of the loom on current computer algorithms, but still an entertaining history reading. I enjoy the references to primary sources that illuminate the lives of the investors Babbage & Lovelace.
Read
October 7, 2022ok so technically I didn't finish this - I'm much more interested in the early history of the loom and early computers than the more recent stuff. But! this was a super interesting connection between textiles and computing.
October 27, 2023
As a weaver and previous computer science student, this book tickled my fancy. I love the idea that computers are just information looms, it really highlights the way everything is related to everything else in unimaginable ways.
January 11, 2022
A very interesting retelling of the surprising history of computing as it began in the 19th century French textile industry. It can get a little cheesy at times, but it's still a worthwhile read.
March 21, 2023
Interesting take on the IBM Punched Card system, and its genesis. Includes a non-technical summary of Babbage's "Difference Engine" efforts. Somewhat flowery.
August 31, 2023
This is actually quite a seminal book on the origins of computers, and deserves to be much better known. Its also a great example of how to write engaging and clear non-fiction.
June 8, 2024
A good topic destroyed by insufferable writing. Very disappointing.
May 12, 2021
Received as a gift from a colleague and it helped inspire the development of a Jacquard loom exhibit at the Museum I worked.
August 11, 2010
Interesting exploration of an oft-forgotten but important forerunner of today's computers... the Jacquard loom of early 18th-century France. The book traces the loom's beginnings and evolution from then to today, with much discussion of those whose inventions and thinking spun directly from Jacquard's invention, like Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Herman Hollerith, and Howard Aiken.
To keep the book slim, many others were left out, though, like George Boole and Alan Turing, for instance, lending a bit of a rushed feeling as the narrative weaved its way into the present day. The numerous pictures, including of the loom, the punched cards it used, and some of its finished products, however, all helped visualize the history being explained.
I would add that this book isn't only for those interested in computer science history, but really for anyone working with computers as well as would-be inventors hitting that proverbial blank wall. The book's story can help ground the reader with a fuller understanding of how the digitized means controlling so much in our society today, much of which we take for granted now (even those involved in creating and programming them) came from a very real hands-on application, of creating woven fabrics with artistic and functional beauty, and making them more accessible to more people as automation brought costs down. The story of how the loom evolved into the bits & bytes that guide us today is a microcosm of the constant human endeavor to seek better ways of doing things, and of the importance of persevering despite how novel one's ideas might seem, especially ones outside the box.
Originally written on Dec 28, 2008 at 03:11AM
To keep the book slim, many others were left out, though, like George Boole and Alan Turing, for instance, lending a bit of a rushed feeling as the narrative weaved its way into the present day. The numerous pictures, including of the loom, the punched cards it used, and some of its finished products, however, all helped visualize the history being explained.
I would add that this book isn't only for those interested in computer science history, but really for anyone working with computers as well as would-be inventors hitting that proverbial blank wall. The book's story can help ground the reader with a fuller understanding of how the digitized means controlling so much in our society today, much of which we take for granted now (even those involved in creating and programming them) came from a very real hands-on application, of creating woven fabrics with artistic and functional beauty, and making them more accessible to more people as automation brought costs down. The story of how the loom evolved into the bits & bytes that guide us today is a microcosm of the constant human endeavor to seek better ways of doing things, and of the importance of persevering despite how novel one's ideas might seem, especially ones outside the box.
Originally written on Dec 28, 2008 at 03:11AM
July 5, 2015
First of all I have to say: this book should have been titled "The Information Loom". Or "The Information Web", or "The Binary Tapestry", or something like that. Joseph-Marie Jacquard is important, but not that important he dwarfed everyone else in page count. Indeed, he was only alive until the fourth chapter. (Being about history the chapters are chronological)
Other than that, though, the book is engaging and well-written. It follows the history of computing by focusing on four men. Jacquard, the inventor of punching cards for the loom; Charles Babbage, who wanted to build analog computer; Herman Hollerith who eventually founded IBM; Howard Aiken who built Harvard Mk. I, one of the first computers ever built.
It should be noted, however, that the definition of "very first computer" is contentious, so we'll leave it at that.
I find the stories entertaining. The Jacquard's part was charming; so was Babbage's. These early parts capture the "life and times" well. The ones about the Americans less so, but that may be just me.
Incindentally, the book suffers trying to link every topic to "Jacquard's Web": how everything discussed is owed to him. It is true, I admit, but after some time it feels rather forced and tedious.
In the end, a little bit uneven. 3 stars.
Other than that, though, the book is engaging and well-written. It follows the history of computing by focusing on four men. Jacquard, the inventor of punching cards for the loom; Charles Babbage, who wanted to build analog computer; Herman Hollerith who eventually founded IBM; Howard Aiken who built Harvard Mk. I, one of the first computers ever built.
It should be noted, however, that the definition of "very first computer" is contentious, so we'll leave it at that.
I find the stories entertaining. The Jacquard's part was charming; so was Babbage's. These early parts capture the "life and times" well. The ones about the Americans less so, but that may be just me.
Incindentally, the book suffers trying to link every topic to "Jacquard's Web": how everything discussed is owed to him. It is true, I admit, but after some time it feels rather forced and tedious.
In the end, a little bit uneven. 3 stars.
December 5, 2017
I was so intrigued the first time I heard about the uncanny similarity between the slotted cards used by looms for weaving complicated jacquard textiles and early computer programming cards, but of course it's no coincidence.... I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book, but it was fascinating to look at history from the lens of such specific technology. From the days of the French Revolution through the 21st Century, Essinger charts the ideological seed of a punch-card mechanism that in many ways drove the process of mechanization to digitization. There is so much that we take for granted when it comes to processing large amounts of data (think of censuses), and how much the speed of calculation affected progress in so many scientific fields. I have to admit, as much as I benefit from digitization, I admire the elegance and ingenuity of mechanical devices, and the ability to see how all the difference pieces work together.
I would recommend it for textile nerds, and information technology enthusiasts alike!
I would recommend it for textile nerds, and information technology enthusiasts alike!
October 22, 2008
My first comment: Good so far, except the author got the definition of warp & weft partially backwards. Which is a pretty big goof for a book about weaving.
Overall, I'm torn between giving this a 2 and a 3. It was interesting, but somehow it was also "easy to put down" - and I didn't want to pick it back up & read more. Once I got a few pages into it, I'd remember "oh right, this is actually interesting" but that just didn't stick with me. There is a lot of very good information in here, but the writing just didn't engage me.
And the mix-up about warp vs weft still annoys me.
HOWEVER. My next trip to London I'm going to phone up the Science Museum & see if I can have a look-see at their replica of the Difference Engine.
Overall, I'm torn between giving this a 2 and a 3. It was interesting, but somehow it was also "easy to put down" - and I didn't want to pick it back up & read more. Once I got a few pages into it, I'd remember "oh right, this is actually interesting" but that just didn't stick with me. There is a lot of very good information in here, but the writing just didn't engage me.
And the mix-up about warp vs weft still annoys me.
HOWEVER. My next trip to London I'm going to phone up the Science Museum & see if I can have a look-see at their replica of the Difference Engine.
January 16, 2009
This was a quick read and a very interesting study on how the Jacquard loom can be linked to modern computers. I would have like more footnotes so that the info felt more like fact than opinion, but I enjoyed it non the less.
December 27, 2010
This was recommended by my weaver friend Shelly. I loved the connection between the weaving and the birth of computers. Although I knew about the broad outlines of the story, the detail was interesting for anyone interested in computers.
April 15, 2012
This was interesting in parts (Jacquard, Hollerith) and it is good to read some history of technology.
Unfortunately it is not well written or edited; thin on actual technical details; and the further in time from Jacquard the history went, the more laboured the insistence on a connection.
Unfortunately it is not well written or edited; thin on actual technical details; and the further in time from Jacquard the history went, the more laboured the insistence on a connection.
September 11, 2013
Well-written and easy to follow, I definitely feel smarter after having read this book. Although some parts it seems like the author has taken some romanticized liberties, overall the book is very thorough and I very much enjoyed reading it.
June 17, 2011
As someone who's fascinated by both textiles and technology, this book is right up my alley. A fascinating view of the origins of punchcard technology.
March 25, 2012
well, it certainly isn't "The Mechanical Turk"
February 20, 2015
Interesting enough, but a little tedious in places. The suggested connection between Jacquard's punched card system for the loom and modern computing was stretched to breaking point.
December 27, 2015
Educational, interesting read from an author with a point to prove. Surprisingly accessible introduction to computer science through the medium of weaving.
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