A reproduction of cards for an early Jacquard loom. These were punched on an original Jacquard punching machine operated by hand. A complex pattern might require as many as 4000 cards. Punching cards by hand could take weeks, but once punched they could be used repeatedly to duplicate the pattern.

Jacquard's invention automated an extremely slow and tedious process: the manual pulling up of different sets of threads in a loom to create variations between rows. A drawloom, as this type of loom was called, operated by a weaver's assistant called a draw-boy could weave about one inch of patterned silk per day. Jacquard's loom increased this to 24 inches per day and eliminated the need for a draw-boy. It transformed the industry and Jacquard, who was poor, was given a large yearly stipend by the government.

Jacquard's loom was not the first attempt to mechanize the weaving of patterns. Earlier French inventors came up with partial solutions, including Falcon, in 1728, who only partially automated the actions of the draw loom and Vaucanson, in 1741, who used pinned barrels like a music box, an approach limited to shorter repetitive patterns. Jacquard was the first to come up with a practical solution that completely automated the process.