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Review
Jacquard's web is a special book that explains more than the connections between loom and computer: it presents a fascinating history of talented and creative people developing and inventing the tools of progress. (Chris Arney, Mathematical Reviews )
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"An entertaining and illuminating exercise in making connections between apparently disparate scientific endeavours."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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If you wanted to be part of the scientific and literary set in the London of the 1840s, you would have done just about anything to beg, steal, or borrow an invitation to one of Charles Babbage's famous soirees. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
If you wanted to be part of the scientific and literary set in the London of the 1840s, you would have done just about anything to beg, steal, or borrow an invitation to one of Charles Babbage's famous soirees. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is an amazing story of how a machine that was designed to allow the production of intricately woven material became the forerunner of modern computers.
Jacquard's weaving loom was the first programmable machine, foreshadowing the modern computer. The author explains the background to it, and shows you how the idea was then developed and became the computer industry that is familiar to many of us.
The only weakness in the book was that the thread was taken too far. The last couple of chapters attempted to draw the line from Jacquard's machine into the Internet era, which was a little tenuous. The build up to the modern programmable computer was very strong, but this last bit let it down.
Despite that, the book was fascinating, and an excellent read. Well recommended.
Jacquard's weaving loom was the first programmable machine, foreshadowing the modern computer. The author explains the background to it, and shows you how the idea was then developed and became the computer industry that is familiar to many of us.
The only weakness in the book was that the thread was taken too far. The last couple of chapters attempted to draw the line from Jacquard's machine into the Internet era, which was a little tenuous. The build up to the modern programmable computer was very strong, but this last bit let it down.
Despite that, the book was fascinating, and an excellent read. Well recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is a STORY about PEOPLE. Jacquard, Babbage and those the author regards as significant to computer development. It does NOT describe their inventions, nor does it make a coherent case for the chain of events it claims.
The author is clearly neither a scientist nor an engineer. Several aspects make this clear - firstly there are many paragraphs of text attempting to describe concepts which could have been expressed more clearly and concisely with a diagram or an equation. Secondly, the actual technical details of the machines in question are never properly described. Furthermore he does not appear to understand, nor even use consistently, the word "automatic". Nor understand the difference between data entry and data processing.
My knowledge of Jacquard is very slight, somewhat better of Babbage. But from a career in electronic engineering, from when computers filled rooms, I directly know of several significant technical errors spread across the 2nd half of the book. Also the key contributions of Bletchley Park are skipped over (inexcusable now the principal details are public knowledge) thus a very Americanised account of computing results.
So if you are from a technical background this book will irritate. However if not the strictly non-technical story-telling obviously does appeal, as other reviews indicate.
One aspect is useful for all, there are extensive quoted sections of the writings of the historical figures.
The author is clearly neither a scientist nor an engineer. Several aspects make this clear - firstly there are many paragraphs of text attempting to describe concepts which could have been expressed more clearly and concisely with a diagram or an equation. Secondly, the actual technical details of the machines in question are never properly described. Furthermore he does not appear to understand, nor even use consistently, the word "automatic". Nor understand the difference between data entry and data processing.
My knowledge of Jacquard is very slight, somewhat better of Babbage. But from a career in electronic engineering, from when computers filled rooms, I directly know of several significant technical errors spread across the 2nd half of the book. Also the key contributions of Bletchley Park are skipped over (inexcusable now the principal details are public knowledge) thus a very Americanised account of computing results.
So if you are from a technical background this book will irritate. However if not the strictly non-technical story-telling obviously does appeal, as other reviews indicate.
One aspect is useful for all, there are extensive quoted sections of the writings of the historical figures.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
No one could read the first chapter of this book and not finish it. In fact, I've just spent the past two days devouring it from start to finish. It's an entertaining fact-filled romp through the entire history of something that dominates our lives, and that we always think of as entirely modern... and yet the history this book traces goes back nearly 5,000 years.
What I liked best about it was the teasingly thought-provoking idea the author raises: that our computer age could have started over 150 years ago in Victorian England...
According to Jacquard's Web, the Victorian scientist Charles Babbage spent a lifetime building and refining metal calculating cogwheel machines or 'engines' as Babbage called them. The working portions of the Engines he built worked perfectly. As Babbage's friend and colleague Ada Lovelace once said, it was the first time in history that 'wheelwork' had been taught 'to think'. But funding ran out and Babbage died never seeing his calculating engines come to fruition.
What I found so incredibly thought-provoking in this book was that in London in 1991 a perfectly working Difference Engine was built from Charles Babbage's plans and drawings. I have seen the Difference Engine in action myself (as the white-gloved engineer cranks the handle, the stacked columns of cogwheels spiral and coalesce beautifully as they perform their mathematical calculations) but I hadn't realised the significance at the time.
According to the author, James Essinger, if Babbage had found the funding to complete his Engines, computers could have come into widespread use in the nineteenth century. Now if that isn't a thought-provoking idea I don't know what is!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good, but slightly sketchy at times
The first two thirds of this book is well worth reading, and overall, I agree with the above reviews. Read more
Published on 27 Aug 2007 by Dannydorko
Computers in Victorian times......
No one could read the first chapter of this book and not finish it. In fact, I've just spent the past two days devouring it from start to finish. Read more
Published on 25 May 2007 by Heli
Fascinating and Fun
As a fan of science and technology literature accessible to the layman I found this book absolutely superb. Read more
Published on 27 Nov 2006 by W. H. Osborne
computing made fascinating
As the least technologically-minded person I know I bought this book because I wanted to find out what computers really are and how they've come to dominate our lives today. Read more
Published on 30 Nov 2004
Jacquard's Web
This book is a brilliant example of what a winning formula genuine enthusiasm - together with an ability to convey that enthusiasm on the printed page, and a thorough grasp of the... Read more
Published on 21 Oct 2004 by Mr. R. R. Bolt
From weaving to computing
Jacquard's Web is a most enjoyable insight into the history of the computer.The book brings to life the struggles that faced the inventors who dreamt hand-looms could one day... Read more
Published on 20 Oct 2004 by stephen
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