The Collaborative International Dictionary
Jacquard \Jac*quard"\, a. Pertaining to, or invented by, Jacquard, a French mechanician, who died in 1834.
Jacquard apparatus or Jacquard arrangement, a device applied to looms for weaving figured goods, consisting of mechanism controlled by a chain of variously perforated cards, which cause the warp threads to be lifted in the proper succession for producing the required figure.
Jacquard card, one of the perforated cards of a Jacquard apparatus.
Jacquard loom, a loom with Jacquard apparatus.
Wikipedia
The Jacquard loom is a power loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard, first demonstrated in 1801, that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with such complex patterns as brocade, damask and matelasse. The loom was controlled by a "chain of cards", a number of punched cards, laced together into a continuous sequence. Multiple rows of holes were punched on each card, with one complete card corresponding to one row of the design. Several such paper cards, generally white in color, can be seen in the images below. Chains, like Bouchon's earlier use of paper tape, allowed sequences of any length to be constructed, not limited by the size of a card.
It is based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728) and Jacques Vaucanson (1740) A static display of a Jacquard loom is the centrepiece of the Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs in Lyon. Live displays of a Jacquard loom are available at a few private museums around Lyon and also twice a day at La Maison des Canuts, as well as at other locations around the world.
Usage examples of "jacquard loom".
Ada Checkers, the tailors called them, the Lady having created the pattern by programming a Jacquard loom to weave pure algebra.
The mechanism of the Jacquard loom replaces the draw-loom mechanism, necking box through draw-boy.
Like a punched card fed into a jacquard loom, it ceased to be an abstract message and became a part of the machine.