670 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
quired, the cards have to be laced together in an endless band hung 
upon a rack at the side of the loom, and carried around the cylinder. 
The most striking advantage of the use of the Jacquard machine 
in the textile arts is the facility it gives for a frequent change of de- 
sign. It is only necessary to take down one set of cards and hang up 
another in order to change the pattern. The result of this facility 
was that the early part of the nineteenth century witnessed a perfect 
orgy of fantastic ornamentation. The manufacturers of all sorts 
of ornamental silk and fine woolen textiles vied with each other in . 
the number and originality of the designs they could preduce. The 
profession of designer may almost be said to be an outcome of the 
invention of Jacquard. Previously to this time the master weaver, 
or some person in practical touch with the looms, had arranged the 
design, and when once tied up on the loom it was good for a lifetime. 
But with the introduction of the new draw engine, as the machine 
was called, all this was altered, and restless change of pattern and 
fashion was the result. 
At first the machine was only adopted in the silk trade for the 
weaving of rich brocades and other elaborate materials for dress or 
furniture, but ever since its introduction its use has been gradually 
extending, all kinds of plain and ornamental textiles being now made 
by its means, whether on hand or power looms. 
As a work of mechanism it is truly wonderful. It can be made to 
govern all the operations of the loom except throwing the shuttle and 
actuating the lever by which it itself works. It opens the shed for 
the pattern, however complicated, regulates the length of the design, 
changes the shuttle boxes in proper succession, rings a bell when cer- 
tain points in a design requiring special treatment are reached, regu- 
lates the take-up of the woven cloth on the front roller, and works out 
many other details, all by means of a few holes punched in a set of 
cards. Its great defects are the dreadful noise it makes, the ease 
with which it gets out of order, and the difficulty of putting it right. 
These render it only suitable for factory use, where noise does not 
seem to matter, and where a machinist is constantly at hand to keep 
the mechanism in good order. 
So far I have traced the development of the hand loom, from its 
most primitive form to one of a high degree of perfection, as a tool 
for the skillful artificer. Here I must at present leave it and turn 
to a brief consideration of the machine loom actuated by steam or 
other power. 
In order to find the earliest recorded attempt to weave by power 
we must carry our imagination back to the latter part of the six- 
teenth century and look in on the fathers of the city of Danzig in 
council chamber solemnly assembled. They are deciding the fate of 
a prisoner accused and found guilty of the crime of inventing a very 
