Kids today probably don’t know about punched cards, but when I was at school we all had to play around with them a bit as we learnt about state-of-the-art computing …. But the technology derives from weaving, and from the Jacquard loom of 1804.
by Chris Bertram on October 13, 2024
Kids today probably don’t know about punched cards, but when I was at school we all had to play around with them a bit as we learnt about state-of-the-art computing …. But the technology derives from weaving, and from the Jacquard loom of 1804.
{ 9 comments }
James E Shirk 10.13.24 at 11:11 pm
I remember the days of submitting your stack of punch cards to the Priests serving the campus eight bit IBM; and returning the next morning to find it had failed to compile. Drawing an oblique line across the stack so if you tripped you could reassemble them in the proper order. Ahhh, the good old days!
Alan White 10.13.24 at 11:11 pm
Great picture! The detail on being zoomed in is amazing.
bad Jim 10.14.24 at 4:42 am
I had the same experience as James E Shirk, except that Berkeley had a CDC6400. My most treasured memory came during my second course, learning its assembly language, when I suddenly realized I could read the core dump!
DCA 10.14.24 at 6:32 am
About 15 years ago I went on a tour to China; one stop was a silk-weaving establishment in Shanghai, which had, thumping away, power-driven Jacquard looms complete with cards.
And I too go back to the time when one of the most important items in the computer room was the box of rubber bands.
CHETAN R MURTHY 10.15.24 at 2:40 am
I missed punched-cards in college by literally a semester. But in middle school my sib and I were so bored to death (Texas public schools, all they’re good for is learning how to put up with your intellectual inferiors and their brutality) our parents sent us to a community college class which was … RPGII programmed on 96-column IBM System/3 computers. Useless, just -useless-.
ljsjl 10.16.24 at 10:16 am
I you like this sort of thing and find yourself in Paris then le Musée des Arts et Métiers has a few examples. For a good collection of working(!) weaving machines across the ages La Manufacture de Roubaix is excellent.
Jeff Sutter 10.17.24 at 12:58 am
For more looms, more about silk, and some history of rebellion, Lyon has the Maison des Canuts and other working looms in the Croix-Rousse neighborhood. The Jacquard mechanism is quite amazing.
KT2 10.17.24 at 6:07 am
As nobody knew the terms Babbage knew at the time, he used a known device – a Jacquard loom.
“The Mysterious Visit of Mr Babbage, by Bruce Sterling (2017)
Bruce Sterling
Feb 9, 2024
…
“Those who are acquainted with the loom are aware that by means of cards having certain holes punched in them it is possible to weave with the SAME loom ANY design however complicated. The design is translated into cards and these direct the motions of the threads. By similar means the motions of the Calculating Engine are directed. Any formula however complicated is translated into cards and these being placed in the Engine it works out that particular formula and gives its numerical value”.
“In one respect however it advances beyond the cards of Jacard. “…
…
https://bruces.medium.com/the-mysterious-visit-of-mr-babbage-by-bruce-sterling-2017-7c941028c4d8
hat tip – clivethompson
dilbert dogbert 10.17.24 at 2:36 pm
Re: Punched cards
Does anyone remember Herman Hollerith?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith
His cards were the size of the old paper money.
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