JACQUARD, JOSEPH MARIE (1752-1834), French in ventor, was born at Lyons on July 7, 1752. In 1793 he took part in the unsuccessful defence of Lyons against the troops of the Convention ; but afterwards served in their ranks on the Rhone and Loire. He then worked in a Lyons factory, and employed his spare time in constructing his improved loom, of which he had conceived the idea several years previously. In 18o1 he exhibited his invention at the industrial exhibition at Paris; and in 1803 he was summoned to Paris and attached to the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. A loom by Jacques de Vaucanson (1709-82), deposited there, suggested various improvements in his own, which he gradually perfected to its final state. Although his invention
was fiercely opposed by the silk-weavers, who feared that its intro duction, owing to the saving of labour, would deprive them of their livelihood, its advantages secured its general adoption, and by 1812 there were ii,000 Jacquard looms in use in France. The loom was declared public property in 1806, and Jacquard was rewarded with a pension and a royalty on each machine. He died at Oullins (Rhone) on Aug. 7, 1834, and six years later a statue was erected to him at Lyons (see WEAVING).