JACQUARD, J03KPH -MARIE. 



JACQUARD, JOSBPH-MARIB. 



Shortly previomly hi* work ' Uu Diviue Thing* and on 

 Revelation* (Leipx. 1811) had involved him in a bitter controversy 

 with SobcUing, who. ia hU answer, which bora the title ' Memorial to 

 the Work on Divine Thing.,' professed to gire the rel position of 

 Jaoobi with reepeot to eoieioe and thrUm, or, in other word*, to philo- 

 sophy and religion, and generally to literature. Notwithstanding the 

 unfavourable estimate which tbii great philosopher drew therein of 

 the literary and philosophical merit* of Jacobi, he (till maintains a 

 high rank among sincere and honest inquirer* after truth ; and even 

 if, exclutivrlr occupied with deUched speculations, ha rather prepared 

 than wtabliibed a system of philosophy, the profoundness and origi- 

 nality of his views have furnished materials of which more systematic 

 minds have not scrupled to avail themselves for the construction of 

 their own theories. 



As a poet, in which capacity he was greatly inferior to his brother 

 (John George), Jacobi wag a reflective rather than an imaginative 

 thinker. His poetical merits are chiefly confined to vividness of de- 

 scription and to boldness of style. His philosophical writings, notwith- 

 standing the want of all scientific method, are remarkable for the 

 beauty of the exposition, which is conveyed in a form at once vigorous 

 and harmonious. His views of philosophy, as far as they can bo 

 gathered from his scattered and occasional compositions on the subject, 

 were rather of a sceptical than of a dogmatical character, and he denied 

 the possibility of certainty in human knowledge. He maintained that 

 all demonstrative systems must necessarily lead to fatalism, which 

 however is irreconcileable with man's consciousness of the freedom of 

 his rational nature. The general system of nature indeed, and man 

 himself, so far as he is a part of that system, is pure mechanism ; but 

 in man there is unquestionably an energy which transcends and is 

 superior to sense, or that faculty which is bound up with and regu- 

 lated by the laws of nature. This higher energy is liberty, or reason, 

 and consequently sense and reason distinguish to man two distinct 

 spheres of his activity the sensible or visible world, and the invisible 

 or intelligible. The existence of these worlds no more admits of 

 demonstrative proof than that of sense and reason themselves. Now 

 sense and reason are the supreme and ultimate principles of all intel- 

 lectual operations, and as such legitimate them, while they themselves 

 do not receive their legitimieation from aught else ; and the existence 

 of sense and reason necessarily implies the existence of sensible and 

 intelligible objects about which they are conversant But this existing 

 system of things cannot have originally proceeded either from nature 

 or from man's intellect or reason, for both nature and the human mind 

 are finite and oonditionate, and there must bo something infinite and 

 unconditionate, superior to and independent both of nature and man, 

 to be the source and principle of all things. This being is God. Now 

 as man's liberty consists in his personality or absolute individuality, 

 for this constitutes his proper essence, while the mechanism of nature 

 is hereby distinguished from man, that none of its members are indi- 

 vidual of character, therefore that which is superior both to nature 

 and to man must be perfectly and supremely individual ; God conse- 

 quently is one only, and strictly personal. Moreover, as the ground 

 of all subsistence, he cannot be without subsistence ; and as the prin- 

 ciple of reason, he cannot be irrational Of the existence of this 

 divine intelligence however all direct proof is as impossible as a 

 demonstration of existence simply. Generally indeed nothing can be 

 known except upon testimony, and whatever rests on testimony is not 

 certainty but faith, and such a faith or belief, when its object is the 

 existence of a good and supreme being, is religion. 



Jacobi died at Munich on the 10th of March 1819. His complete 

 works have been published in 6 vols., Leipzig, 1819-20. 



JACQUARD, JOSEPH-MARIE, was born at Lyon, on the 7th of 

 July 1762, of humble parents, both of whom were employed in ope- 

 rations connected with weaving. He is said to have been left to teach 

 himself even to read and write ; bnt at a very early age he displayed 

 a taste for mechanics, by constructing neat models of buildings, 

 furniture, Ac., for amusement. At the age of twelve his father placed 

 him with a bookbinder for a time, and he was subsequently engaged 

 in type-founding and the manufacture of cutlery, in both of which 

 ooonpations he gave evidence of talent Owing to the death of his 

 mother, young Jacquard returned to the house and occupation of his 

 father, who died some years after, leaving him a small property, which 

 he employed in the attempt to establish a business in the weaving of 

 figured fabrics. The undertaking failed, and he was compelled to sell 

 his loom* in order to pay his debt*. He subsequently married, and 

 booed to receive a portion with his wife which might assist him out 

 of his pecuniary difficulties; but this expectation proved delusive, and 

 he was compelled to sell his paternal residence. His wife, to whom 

 he is said to have been tenderly attached, is described as a model of 

 patience, kindness, and activity ; while he appears, without fortune or 

 foresight, to have occupied himself with ingenious schemes for 

 improvements in weaving, cutlery, and type-founding, which pro- 

 dneed nothing for the support of his family. Necessity at length 

 compelled him to enter the service of a lino-maker in Bresse, while his 

 wifa remained at Lyon to attend to a small straw-bat business. In 

 1793 be ardently embraced the revolutionary cause, and in the 

 following year he returned to Lyon, and assisted in the memorable 

 defence of that place against tho army of the Convention. His only 

 OB, then a youth of fifteen, fought by his aide. Being denounced 



afUr the reduction of Lyon, they were both compelled to fly, and 

 they then joined the army of the Rhine. His son was killed in battle, 

 and upon this Jaoquard returned to Lyon, where he found his wife, 

 whom he had been unable to inform ol his flight, earning her bread 

 by plaiting straw, in which humble occupation he was compelled by 

 poverty to assist Lyon at length began to rise from its ruins, and iU 

 artiians returned from Switzerland, Germany, and England, where 

 they hud taken refuge. Under these circumstances, Jaoquard applied 

 liimself with renewed energy to the perfection of the beautiful appa- 

 ratus for figured weaving which bears his name. He bad conceived 

 the idea of such an apparatus as early as 1790, and be now succeeded, 

 though but imperfectly, in accomplishing his end. His machine was 

 presented, in September 1801, to the national exposition of the pro- 

 iucts of industry, the jury of which awarded him a bronco medal for 

 its invention. In the same year he obtained a patent, or ' brevet 

 d'invention,' for a term of ten year*. He set up a loom on his new 

 principle at Lyon, which was visited by Curnot and several other of 

 the statesmen who were assembled at that city in 1802 to arrange the 

 affairs of the Cisalpine republic. 



About this time the attention of Jacquard appears to have been 

 directed, by the accidental perusal of a paragraph from an English 

 newspaper, stating that a reward was offered by a society in this 

 country for tho invention of such an apparatus, to the construction of 

 a machine for weaving nets for fishing and maritime purposes. I'rom 

 the account given by Dr. Bowring, who had conversed on the subject 

 with Jacquard himself, before a select committee of the House of 

 Commons on the silk trade in 1832, this would appear to have been 

 Jacquard's first mechanical invention; but the more circumstantial 

 account in the ' Supplement' to the 'Biographic Universelle,' to which 

 we are chiefly indebted for the materials of this article, shows that 

 such was not the case. He accomplished the desired object; but, 

 having amused himself and his friends with his contrivance, he threw 

 it aside. His machine-made net however fell into the hands of the 

 prdfet at Lyon, and the result was that, according to the arbitrary 

 fashion of the time, he and his machine were placed under arrest and 

 conveyed to Paris, where the invention was submitted to inspectors, 

 upon whose report a gold medal was awarded to him in February 

 1804. On occasion of this forced visit to Paris, Jacquard was intro- 

 duced to Napoleon I. and Carnot, when the latter, not understanding his 

 mechanism, roughly asked him if he were the man who pretended to 

 do that impossibility to tie a knot in a stretched string. Jacquard, 

 not disconcerted at such a reception, explained the action of his 

 machinery with simplicity, and convinced the incredulous minister 

 that the supposed impossibility was accomplished by it. He was then 

 employed for a time in repairing and putting in order the models and 

 machines in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, and while there he 

 produced some ingenious improvements in weaving-machinery, one of 

 which was for producing ribbons with a velvet face on each sloth He 

 also contrived some improvements upon a loom invented by Vaucan- 

 son, which improvements hare been stated to be the origin of the 

 Jacquard machine. According to the French authority above referred 

 to, however, this improvement upon Vaucanson's loom was not con- 

 nected with his great invention ; and, as its mechanism is very 

 complex, its application limited to very small patterns, its action 

 slow, and its cost very great, it is considered to belong rather to the 

 class of curious than of useful niaci 



In 1804 Jacquard returned to Lyon, where he was long engaged in 

 superintending the introduction of his inventions for figured weaving 

 and for making nets, in which he was powerfully aided by Camilla 

 Pernon, a rich manufacturer. Through his assistance, a commission of 

 manufacturers was appointed to report upon the first-named invention, 

 and eventually an imperial decree, dated Berlin, October 27, 1806, was 

 issued to authorise the municipal administration of Lyon to purchase 

 his invention for the use of the public. In the same year the Academy 

 of Sciences and Arts at that city presented him with the prize medal 

 founded by the consul Lebrun. For some years Jacquard had to 

 struggle against much opposition and prejudice on the part of the 

 Lyonese weavers, who conspired to discourage tho use of his machinery, 

 wilfully spoiled their work to bring it into discredit, and, through the 

 Conseil des Prud'hommes, who were appointed to watch ov<r tin- 

 commercial interests of the city, had it publicly broken up and sold 

 as old materials. Even his personal safety was at times endangered. 

 At length however, under the effect of foreign competition, the value 

 of the invention was acknowledged, and it was brought very exten- 

 sively into use, not only in France, but in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, 

 and America. 



Jaoquard was solicited by the manufacturers of Rouen and St. 

 Quentin to organise their factories of cotton and batiste, and he 

 received a tempting offer of a similar nature from England ; but he 

 preferred remaining at Lyon, where he continued to exert himself in 

 promoting the use of bis great invention until, having lost his wife, 

 he retired to Oullins, a village near Lyon, where he spent his latter 

 years in retirement, and died on the 7th of August 1834, at the age of 

 eighty-two. During bis life be received the cross of the Legion of 

 Honour, and in 1840 a public statue was raised to his memory at Lyon. 

 His ' Elogie Historique ' has been published by M. de Fortis. 



" The name of Jacquard," observe the writers of his memoir in the 

 ' Biogrnphie Universelle,' " has become, so to speak, technical in both 



