I bought a pamphlet from 1936 about the operation of Jacquard looms. Here’s an illustration from it:

It shows the huge stack of loom cards (2,000 are not a lot for a Jacquard) that control the pattern being woven. Histories of information frequently point back to Jacquard loom cards as a precursor of Hollerith’s punch cards. (Clearly they were an inspiration for Hollerith, but I think “precursor” is too strong a connection, for reasons that are not yet clear to me.) [Tags: jacquard_loom information hollerith]

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