Jacquard mechanical loom

On 23 December 1801 Joseph Marie Jacquard registered a patent for a machine that would do away with the ‘drawboy’ who operated the heddle strings in the weaving of brocaded and patterned fabrics. Jacquard’s aim was twofold: to reduce the overcrowding of workshops in the Lyon region with the heddle strings and drawboys around each loom and to reduce labour costs. The Jacquard mechanism was widely used and improved several times in the 19th century, but its success was what made it so unpopular with silk workers who feared losing their jobs. This model was formerly in the machines gallery of the Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale and was transferred to the museum in 1866.