This is a paperbound reprint of a 2004 book. History enthusiast Essinger tracks the evolution of Jacquard's machine, a set of punched cards that directed patterns produced on silk looms, finding that Jacquard adapted (but did not invent) the system primarily to corner the silk weaving market. Jacquard soon saw the concept sliding from salon to workshop floor to other factories. Essinger tracks it all the way, right up to the introduction of the commercial computer about 200 years later. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Circuits from silk? Today's technophiles probably have no idea how much today's computer technology owes to the invention of one ingenuous textile manufacturer in nineteenth-century France. Here, master storyteller James Essinger shows through a series of remarkable and meticulously researched historical connections how the Jacquard loom kick-started a process of scientific evolution which would lead directly to the development of the modern computer.
Jacquard's 1804 invention, a loom which used punch cards with stored instructions for weaving different patterns and designs, enabled the master silk-weavers of Lyons to weave fabrics 25 times faster than the competition. Here, Essinger reveals the plethora of extraordinary links between that innovation in weaving and today's computer age, introducing us to the intriguing and colorful people who paved the way. The book concludes by bringing the story completely up-to-date with the latest developments in the World Wide Web and the fascinating phenomenon of artificial intelligence.
Attractively illustrated and compellingly narrated, Jacquard's Web presents an eye-opening and scarcely known history that will prove fascinating to readers of popular science, especially those interested in the history of science, technology, and computing, as well as professional scientists, historians, and students.
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