Computing · Punched cards

How did a loom lead to the computer?

Name: How did a loom lead to the computer?
Uploaded: 2026-10-25
Duration: 23 s
Description: In 1804, Joseph-Marie Jacquard built a loom that read its pattern from a chain of punched cards. A hole lifts a thread, no hole leaves it down: one or zero. Row by row, the cards wove portraits in silk. Charles Babbage borrowed the idea for his calculating engine, and a century later, punched cards fed the first computers.

What you’ll see

In 1804, Joseph-Marie Jacquard built a loom that read its pattern from a chain of punched cards. A hole lifts a thread, no hole leaves it down: one or zero. Row by row, the cards wove portraits in silk. Charles Babbage borrowed the idea for his calculating engine, and a century later, punched cards fed the first computers.