What is Textile manufacturing?

Before IBM, before punch-card computers, one of the very first machines that could run something like what we now call a "program" was used to make fabric. This machine a loom could process so much information that the fabric it produced could display pictures detailed enough that they might be mistaken for engravings.

Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling. (Weft is an old English word meaning "that which is woven"; compare leave and left.) The method in which these threads are inter-woven affects the characteristics of the cloth. Cloth is usually woven on a loom, a device that holds the warp threads in place while filling threads are woven through them.

The way the warp and filling threads interlace with each other is called the weave. The majority of woven products are created with one of three basic weaves: plain weave, satin weave, or twill. Woven cloth can be plain (in one colour or a simple pattern), or can be woven in decorative or artistic design.

How an 1803 Jacquard Loom Lead to Computer Technology:

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