JACQUARD, Joseph Marie (1752-1834), inventor of the Jacquard silk-weaving loom, was born of humble parents at Lyons, July 7, 1752. The earlier part of his life is involved in considerable obscurity, though it is said that his mechanical talent was manifest from an early age. Jacquard married in 1777, and at the death of his father fell heir to two looms and a small sum of money. These, however, like Palissy’s furniture, were sacrificed to the inventive pursuits of their owner, who was at last forced to become a lime-burner at Bresse, while his wife supported herself at Lyons by plaiting straw. In 1793 Jacquard took part in the unsuccessful defence of Lyons against the troops of the convention; but afterwards served in their ranks on the Rhone and Loire. After seeing some active service, in which his young son was shot down at his side, Jacquard again returned to Lyons, where he succeeded in finding work. He still laboured at his machines, and in 1801 a medal was awarded him for an invention which he exhibited in the industrial exhibition at Paris, whereby one workman per loom was superseded in the weaving of figured silks. Jacquard was summoned to Paris, and after interviews with Napoleon and Carnot was attached to the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. A loom of Vaucanson’s, deposited there, suggested various improvements in his own, which he gradually perfected to its final state. In 1804 he returned to Lyons, and although his invention was fiercely opposed by the silk weavers, whom it threatened to deprive of a livelihood, its advantages were too great to suffer resistance. Many years before his death, which occurred at Oullins, a village near Lyons, on August 7, 1834, the inventor had the satisfaction of seeing his loom in almost universal use, and, as a ...