Jacquard
Jacquard is a patterned fabric woven on a loom fitted with a Jacquard mechanism, which lifts warp threads individually according to punched cards.
A jacquard fabric is one whose pattern was woven on a loom controlled by a Jacquard head. The mechanism, developed by Joseph-Marie Jacquard in early nineteenth-century France, reads a chain of punched cards and lifts each warp thread as the design demands, so a single weaver can produce complex figures that once needed a drawloom and an assistant.
Is jacquard a weave or a machine?
Both, in everyday use. Strictly it names the mechanism; by extension it names the figured cloths it makes, including damask, brocade and tapestry-like fabrics. Its punched cards are often cited as a forerunner of computer programming.
Sources
- Jacquard (AAT 300256616). Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Jacquard (Q78088913). Wikidata
See also
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