INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



His experience in other forms of manufacture soon 

 led him to appreciate the shortcomings of the ordi- 

 nary power-looms then in use, and as early as 1790 

 he seems to have invented, and brought to something 

 like practical form, his now famous loom. At this 

 time all France was involved in the Revolutionary 

 War and Lyons was one of the centers of activity. 

 Jacquard and other members of his family left their 

 looms to fight against the forces of the Convention. 

 In one of the battles against these armies his son was 

 killed while fighting at his side, and this is said to have 

 determined Jacquard to renounce the profession of 

 a soldier and return again to his loom. 



By the beginning of the nineteenth century he had 

 perfected his invention of a loom for weaving, and in 

 1804 he exhibited his new machine, and was given a 

 bronze medal by the National Convention. About 

 the same time he received prizes at home and in Eng- 

 land for the invention he had made with which fish- 

 nets could be woven quickly and cheaply. 



Having gained this success Jacquard returned to 

 Lyons and succeeded in interesting several manufac- 

 turers in his new looms. The utility of his invention 

 was so apparent that he was allowed to install several 

 of his machines in the factories of the neighborhood. 

 But the weavers themselves did not receive his inven- 

 tion in the same spirit as the factory owners, and shortly 

 after several of his machines had been installed, a 

 mob of workmen attacked the factories in which they 

 were being used, tore them from their frames and made 

 bonfires of them in the streets. Jacquard narrowly 



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