††A loom is a machine for weaving cloth. The Jacquard loom was first built in 1801 by Joseph-Marie Jacquard of France. In 1806 a system of punched cards was added which could guide the needles automatically. The loom could weave complicated patterns much more easily than earlier models, and needed fewer people to operate it. A similar system, sometimes referred to as the first computer program, was devised by Ada Lovelace to guide Babbage's calculating machine.
