Jacquard’s loom
One important event in the development of the computer might seem unrelated at first glance. In the early 1800s, as weaver named Joseph Jacquard invented a look that produced patterned cloth automatically. The remarkable thing about this loom was that it used punched cardboard cards deter mined which rods in the loom were engaged at any time.
Jacquard’s loom introduced two concepts that proved important to the future development of the computer. The first concept was that indeed formation could be coded punched cards. Punched cards, as well as we will see were to become the main input/ out medium for the first `modern’ computers. The second concept was that the information stored in the cards could serve as a series of instructions- in effect, a program-when the cards were activated.