Since you might not have heard of the device before, here's a quick rundown. The device attached to a weaving loom and used printed punch cards to "program" patterns into the looms woven fabric.

SURAT: After selling one lakh conventional powerlooms in scrap due to adverse impact of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetization in the country's largest man-made fabric (MMF) hub of Surat, ...

Before IBM, before punch-card computers, before Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, one of the very first machines that could run something like what we now call a "program" was used to make fabric.

Joseph-Marie Jacquard was in his fifties when he invented the Jacquard machine. In Arthur C Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the supercomputer HAL prioritises mission objectives over the lives ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...