Tells how the Jacquard loom, invented in 1804 by Joseph-Marie Jacquard, caused a revolution in the potential of machinery that is still going on today. This astonishing new loom enabled the master weavers of Lyons to create their beautiful silk fabrics 25 times faster than had ever been possible before. This device used revolutionary punched cards to store instructions for weaving the required pattern or design. These cards are now viewed as the world¿s first computer programs. Essinger traces the 200-year evolution of Jacquard¿s idea from the studios of 18th-cent. French weavers, through the Industrial Revolution of the 19th cent., to the info. revolution of the 20th cent.

and to the billions of computers that we rely on around the world today. Illus.