My latest feature in my industrial revolution series for Jane Austen's Regency World magazine is on M. Jacquard's loom. 'Figured' fabrics were decorated with intricate patterns. Since ancient times, a draw-loom or draw-boy loom was used for weaving figured damasks.
Some versions of this loom required a child helper to perch on top of the loom to help the weaver create complex patterns. This was a slow, expensive process, and several inventors simplified the loom to do away with the need for a child helper on top.
Then early in the nineteenth century, over in France, M. Jacquard's new invention caused a stir.
His loom, which used a combination of punched-cards, hooks and needles, enabled far more intricate patterns to be woven. But the silk workers in his home town of Lyon were violently opposed to his machine, and broke up his loom in the public marketplace.
Nevertheless, by the late 1820s, the Jacquard loom was used in Britain for weaving furnishing fabrics in silk, worsteds, cotton and wool in a variety of designs.
Illustration from my collection: Powerlooms stuff manufacture. Jacquard powerlooms are on the left of the picture; looms surmounted by a 'draw-boy' apparatus are on the right. Pictorial Gallery of Arts. Vol. 1, Useful Arts, The London Printing and Publishing Company, (London, c.1858)
