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First Punch Cards |
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In the early 19th century French inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard devised a specialized type of computer: a silk loom. Jacquard’s loom used punched cards to program patterns that helped the loom create woven fabrics. Although Jacquard was rewarded and admired by French emperor Napoleon I for his work, he fled for his life from the city of Lyon pursued by weavers who feared their jobs were in jeopardy due to Jacquard’s invention. The loom prevailed, however: When Jacquard died, more than 30,000 of his looms existed in Lyon. The looms are still used today, especially in the manufacture of fine furniture fabrics. Dr. Atanasoff's ComputerThe men who for decades were credited with inventing the first electronic digital computers were not, in fact, first. That honor belongs to a once forgotten physicist named John V. AtanasoffBy Allan R. Mackintosh |
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