1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910453878203321

Autore

Essinger James <1957->

Titolo

Jacquard's web [[electronic resource] ] : how a hand-loom led to the birth of the information age / / by James Essinger

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Oxford, : Oxford University Press, 2007, c2004

ISBN

0-19-280577-0

1-281-34654-3

0-19-151725-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (315 p.)

Disciplina

004.09

004/.09

509

Soggetti

Computing - History

Calculators

Jacquard knitting machines

Information technology - History

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

First published: 2004.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-293) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; List of illustrations; 1 The engraving that wasn't; 2 A better mousetrap; 3 The son of a master-weaver; 4 The Emperor's new clothes; 5 From weaving to computing; 6 The Difference Engine; 7 The Analytical Engine; 8 A question of faith and funding; 9 The lady who loved the Jacquard loom; 10 A crisis with the American Census; 11 The first Jacquard looms that wove information; 12 The birth of IBM; 13 The Thomas Watson phenomenon; 14 Howard Aiken dreams of a computer; 15 IBM and the Harvard Mark 1; 16 Weaving at the speed of light; 17 The future; Appendix 1: Charles Babbage's vindication

Appendix 2: Ada Lovelace's letter to Charles Babbage, 14 August 1843Appendix 3: How the Jacquard loom worked; Acknowledgements; Notes on sources; Bibliography; Index;

Sommario/riassunto

Jacquard's Web tells one of the greatest untold stories of science: how a hand loom invented in Napoleonic France led to the birth of the modern



computer age. James Essinger, a master storyteller, traces the 200-year evolution of Jacquard's idea from the studios of 18th century weavers, through the Industrial Revolution to the development of hi-tech computers and the information age today. - ;Jacquard's Web is the story of some of the most ingenious inventors the world has ever known, a fascinating account of how a hand-loom invented in Napoleonic France led to the development of the modern in