Editing Jacquard machine (section)

==Importance in computing==
The Jacquard head used replaceable [[punched cards]] to control a sequence of operations. It is considered an important step in the [[history of computing hardware]].<ref>{{cite book
  |title=Jacquard's Web: How a hand-loom led to the birth of the information age
  |last=Essinger
  |first=James
  |year=2004
  |publisher=Oxford University Press
  |location=Oxford
  |isbn=0-19-280577-0
  |url-access=registration
  |url=https://archive.org/details/jacquardswebhowh0000essi
  }}</ref>  The ability to change the pattern of the loom's weave by simply changing cards was an important conceptual precursor to the development of [[computer programming]] and data entry. [[Charles Babbage]] knew of Jacquard machines and planned to use cards to store programs in his [[Analytical Engine]]. In the late 19th century, [[Herman Hollerith]] took the idea of using punched cards to store information a step further when he created a punched card tabulating machine which he used to input data for the [[1890 U.S. Census]]. A large data processing industry using punched-card technology was developed in the first half of the twentieth century{{mdash}}dominated initially by the [[International Business Machine]] corporation (IBM) with its line of [[unit record equipment]]. The cards were used for data, however, with programming done by [[plugboard]]s.

Some early computers, such as the 1944 [[IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator]] (Harvard Mark I) received program instructions from a paper tape punched with holes, similar to Jacquard's string of cards. Later computers executed programs from higher-speed memory, though cards were commonly used to load the programs into memory. Punched cards remained in use in computing up until the mid-1980s.