A figured-weaving loom without a drawboy (Vaucanson)

1745 Knowledge infrastructure instrument

An experimental figured loom of 1745 in which the human being was removed from the selecting mechanism altogether: the selecting box is raised above the loom, the hooks act directly on the warp cords, and the record is moved onto a self-turning perforated cylinder (so Rojas; Britannica describes cards passing around a sliding cylinder).

The loom was built by the Frenchman Jacques de Vaucanson, known for his clockwork automata. The machine remained experimental and never went into the Lyon workshops, being too complex and too costly; it survived in the collection out of which the Musée des Arts et Métiers later grew. Britannica states plainly that this mechanism served as the foundation of Jacquard's successful attachment.

Vaucanson both advanced the matter and led it astray: the cylinder proved a dead end and Falcon's interchangeable cards came back.

Why this date

The year 1745 follows Britannica. In the inventory of the Musée des Arts et Métiers the surviving loom is given a date of manufacture of 1746 and a date of acquisition of 1783, so 1745 is the reference work's date of conception and construction, not the date of the museum object. Britannica notes separately that the mechanism is not known to have been adopted in production.

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