In 1804 Jacquard returned to Lyon, where he was long engaged in superintending the introduction of his inventions for figured weaving and for making nets, in which he was powerfully aided by Camillo Pernon, a rich manufacturer. Through his assistance, a commission of manufacturers was appointed to report upou the first-named invention, and eventually an imperial decree, dated Berlin, October 27, 1800, wile issued to authorise the municipal administration of Lyon to purchase his invention for the use of the public. In the same year the Academy of Sciences and Arta at that city presented him with the prize medal founded by the consul Lebrun. For some years Jacquard had to struggle against much opposition and prejudice on the part of the Lyonese weavers, who conspired to discourage the use of his machinery, wilfully spoiled their work to bring it into discredit, and, through the Conseil des Prud'hommes, who were appointed to watch over the commercial interests of the city, had it publicly broken up and sold as old materials. Even his personal safety was at times endangered. At length however, under the effect of foreign competition, the value of the invention was acknowledged, and it was brought very exten sively into use, not only in France, but in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and America.
Jacquard was solicited by the manufacturers of Ronan and St.
Quentin to organise their factories of cotton and batiste, end he received a tempting offer of a similar naturo from England ; but ho preferred remaining at Lyon, where he continued to exert himself in promoting the use of his great iuvention until, having lost his wife, he retired to Oullins, a village near Lyon, where he spent his latter years in retirement, and died on the 7th of August 1834, at the age of eighty-two. During his life be received the cross of the Legion of Honour, and in 1840 a public, statue was raised to his memory at Lyon. His 'illogic Historique ' has been pnbllehed by M. de Fortis.
"The name of Jacquard," observe the writers of his memoir in the 'Biegeaphie Universelle; "has become, so to speak, technical in both the old and new world." "The happy continuator of the efforts of Vaucanaon, who, like him, was engaged at Lyon in the improvement of weaving-machinery, Jacquard has invented a simple aud cheap machine, coming within the reach of the humble weaver, the intro duction of which forms a memorable epoch—a new era—in textile art." By its agency the richest and most complex designs are pro duced with facility at the most moderate price ; and it has increased the number of workmen in the manufacture in which it is used nearly twenty-fold.