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Jacquard's Web.(Book Review)

From: Contemporary Review  |  Date: 4/1/2005

Jacquard's Web: How a Hand-Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age. James Essinger. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]14.99. xii + 302 pages. ISBN 0-19-280577-0. The hand-loom in question was a device which wove silk threads according to a pattern determined by a series of 24,000 punched cards. The inventor of this loom was Joseph-Marie Jacquard. Mr Essinger begins his book with a history of silk and then moves to draw-looms, which the Lyon inventor-weaver sought to ...

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