Comment by kevin_thibedeau
12 hours ago
The loom allowed for interchangeable weaving sequences to be saved on a cheap medium for later reuse. Movable type presses didn't make that practical with the cost of fonts.
12 hours ago
The loom allowed for interchangeable weaving sequences to be saved on a cheap medium for later reuse. Movable type presses didn't make that practical with the cost of fonts.
Here is a 1746 machine loom that used perforated tape, half a century before Jacquard:
https://www.arts-et-metiers.net/musee/metier-tisser-les-etof...
Nor is it first such device. Here is the nice image of barrel with pins that controls the 14th century machine organ:
https://www.pianola.org/history/history_mechanical.cfm
Again, while impact of Jacquard's loom was indisputably huge, ascribing origin of computers to it seems like calling Ford model T the origin of personal transportation.
Wikipedia suggests that the Jacquard loom introduced Babbage to punched cards, which would be why it, rather than the others, is associated with the origin of computers.