The Jacquard Machine.—General Arrangement and Application.
Illustrations of the Different Parts of the Jacquard Machine.—Method of Operation, etc.
THE JACQUARD HARNESS.
TYING-UP OF JACQUARD HARNESS.
Modifications of the Single Lift Jacquard Machine.
Tying-up of Jacquard Harness for Two-ply Ingrain Carpets.With a General Description of the Working of the Loom and Construction of the Fabric.
APPENDIX.
PRACTICAL HINTS TO LEARNERS OF JACQUARD DESIGNING.
HISTORY OF THE JACQUARD MACHINE
The
Jacquard machine was named after Joseph Marie Jacquard. Jacquard
was
born in Lyons, France, on the 7th of July, 1752. His parents were
employed in the manufacture of silk fabrics. The first trade
Jacquard
learned was book-binding; type-founding and cutlery following
successively. He was 20 years of age when his father died, leaving
him a small house and hand-loom in the village of Cauzon, near
Lyons.
He commenced to invent different improvements in the line of
weaving,
but without other success than accumulating debt, compelling him to
earn the living for himself and family, first in a plaster quarry
at
Bugey, near Lyons, afterwards by working at cutlery, type-founding
and weaving in Lyons.In
1792 he joined the Revolutionists, and after his return in the
following year he and his son assisted in the defence of Lyons
against the Army of the Convention, but left when his son was
killed
near him in battle.Lyons
Council offered him a room, for working on improvements for weaving
at the “Palace of the Fine Arts,” with the condition that he
should instruct scholars free of charge. During his stay there the
Society of Arts, in London, offered a reward for a machine for
making
fishing nets. Jacquard succeeded in perfecting it, but had to
travel
under protection to Paris, where he had to show and explain his
machine before the “Conservatorium of Arts and Trades.”On
the 2d of February, 1804, Jacquard received 3000 francs, and the
gold
medal from the London Society, and also an engagement in the
Conservatorium of Arts, in Paris. Here he found opportunity for
making improvements on his weaving machine, by the study of the
older
inventions of Bouchon, Falcon and Vancanson.M.
Bouchon, in 1725, employed a band of pierced paper pressed by a
hand-bar against a row of horizontal wires, so as to push forward
those which happened to lie opposite the blank spaces, and thus
bring
loops at the lower extremity of vertical wires in connection with a
comb-like rack below. M. Falcon submitted in 1728 a chain of cards,
and a square prism, known as the cylinder, in lieu of the band of
paper of Bouchon. In 1745, Jacques de Vancanson suppressed
altogether
the cumbrous tail-cards of the draw-loom, and made the loom
completely self-acting by placing the pierced paper or card upon
the
surface of a large pierced cylinder, which traveled backwards and
forwards at each stroke, and revolved through a small angle by
ratchet work. He also invented the rising and falling griffe, and
thus made a machine very nearly resembling the actual
Jacquard.Jacquard
returned to Lyons in the year 1804 to take charge of the
work-house.
During his stay at this place he finished his machine. He was an
experienced workman, combining together the best parts of the
machines of his predecessors in the same line, and succeeded
as
the first person in
obtaining an arrangement sufficiently practical to be generally
employed. In 1806 Napoleon Buonaparte changed his position, giving
him an annuity of 3000 francs, but compelling him to transfer his
invention to the city of Lyons, as well as any further inventions.
Until 1810 Jacquard had great troubles, as his machine was not
understood by the weavers. So violent was the opposition made to
its
introduction that he was compelled to leave Lyons in order to save
his life. The
Conseil des Prudhommes
broke up his machines in the public places, and Jacquard was
delivered over to universal ignominy. But after some years had
passed
the machine proved to be of the greatest value, and on the spot
where
the model was destroyed a statue to Jacquard now stands. He died
August 7th, 1834, in Quillins, near Lyons, at 82 years of age. At
the
time of his death over 30,000 Jacquard machines were in operation
in
his native city.