"The most detailed published account of the design and operation of the Jacquard Loom" hitherto (1892)

Posselt, E.A.

[JACQUARD LOOM]. The Jacquard Machine Analyzed and Explained; With an Appendix on the Preparation of Jacquard Cards, and Practical Hints to Learners of Jacquard Designing

Philadelphia: The Author, 1892. Second edition. Quarto (280 x 205). [7], 8-17 pp. With altogether 230 figures in the text including 2 double-page and folding (paper lightly toned and a little weak as is true in all copies on account of the paper stock). With 11 full-page advertisements (including those inside the front and back board). Original cloth (faded, spine most notably; minor wear to binding extremities). Completely unmarked and unblemished; NOT ex-library! Very good. Item #4571

THIS IS THE SECOND, CORRECTED EDITION OF THE EARLIEST DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE JACQUARD LOOM WRITTEN IN ENGLISH. OF DIRECT IMPORTANCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMPUTER, THE JACQUARD LOOM WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THE PUNCH-CARD METHOD OF DATA STORAGE. OURS IS AN EXCELLENT COPY, SUITABLE FOR EXHIBITION AND STUDY.

"This extensively illustrated work is the most detailed published account of the design and operation of the Jacquard loom, on which Jacquard himself appears to have never published any details. The book includes a brief history of the Jacquard loom, a detailed description of its mechanism, and an appendix on the preparation and stamping of Jacquard cards, illustrated with pictures of the stamping machines. The punched-card method of storing and processing data evolved from methods developed by textile manufacturers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for weaving complex patterns in cloth." (Hook & Norman).

Charles Babbage cites the Jacquard loom as the model for crucial aspects of his Analytical Engine: In 1833, “Babbage conceived his chef d’oeuvre, his Analytical Engine. This was to be in concept a general purpose computer, very nearly in the modern sense... The basic idea of this machine was totally different from that of his earlier Difference Engine. In this new one he saw rather clearly some of the ideas that characterized the modern computer. He got his idea from observing the Jacquard attachment to the loom, which revolutionized the textile industry in 1805” (Goldstine, The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann).

As Babbage himself would later explain: “It is known as a fact that the Jacquard loom is capable of weaving any design which the imagination of man may conceive... holes [are punched] in a set of pasteboard cards in such a manner that when those cards are placed in a Jacquard loom, it will then weave upon its produce the exact pattern designed by the artist... The analogy of the Analytical Engine with this well-known process is nearly perfect” (Babbage, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher).

Price: $1,400.00