(Portrait of Joseph-Marie Jacquard).

A rare woven silk portrait of Joseph-Marie Jacquard after Bonnefonds, completed on the Jacquard punched-card loom. Woven by Carquillat in the silk factory of Didier Petit. Written at the bottom of the piece is "Carquillat tex." and "Didier Petit" on the left and right corners, respectively, and "A La Memoire De J. M. Jacquard" on the bottom.

Joseph-Marie Jacquard, played an important role in the development of the earliest programmable loom (the "Jacquard loom"), which in turn played an important role in the development of other programmable machines, such as computers. Around 1800, Joseph began to dabble in inventing: a treadle loom in 1800, a loom to weave fishing nets in 1803, and starting in 1804, the “Jacquard” loom, which would weave patterned silk automatically. However, none of his inventions operated well and thus were unsuccessful.

In 1801, Jacquard exhibited his invention at the industrial exhibition in Paris, and in 1803 he was summoned to Paris and attached to the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. A loom by Jacques de Vaucanson on display 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 introduction, owing to the saving of labour, would deprive them of their livelihood, its advantages secured its general adoption, and by 1812 there were 11,000 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. (biography courtesy of Wikipedia).