Computers would not exist without fabric 

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This video have only one flaw : it's too short. This is so interesting !

Hi! I'm an electrical engineer that does research in e-textiles, and this video made me really feel seen! In such a small niche, it's so wonderful to meet someone who's into the intersection of technology and fiber arts, like I am!

Thank you for making this video! This is SO FASCINATING!! I’m a systems admin (who hopes to one day become a programmer) as well as a devoted knitter, crocheter and all-around textile appreciator! This whole video was RIGHT up my alley! On my current resume, I included a ‘hobbies & other skills’ section JUST so I could mention that I’m an “Avid knitter - the programming language of fiber!” I got to do a little app design and programming while in college and absolutely fell in love with it. And I couldn’t believe how FAMILIAR it felt to following a knitting pattern, how similar learning C# felt to learning how to read a knitting chart for the first time. C# was of course MUCH more in depth, but the beginner lessons were SO similar it blew my mind! Unfortunately I went back to college late in life, so I only pursued my Associates degree so I could start working ASAP. Now I’ve finally landed a good job and things are beginning to stabilize. When they do, I’ll be teaching myself a lot more about development, programming and design because that’s where my passion lies. Idk why I’m giving you my life story, I just want you to know how inspiring this video has been to me! I’ve felt for a long time that coding/programming has a TON in common with knitting/crochet/fiber arts. It makes me indescribably happy to know that they’re not only similar, they’re INTERTWINED! Like a thread 🪡 in a tapestry, distinct but also deeply embedded within the larger whole. It’s beautiful. Computers and fiber are two of my most beloved hobbies/interests. I’m so glad to know that they worked together, all those years ago, to give us the amazing creative pursuits and technological advances we have today. ❤🧶🧵🪡

As a side note after seeing your punch cards: did you know that modern music producers use the same technique as old Dutch street organs? Street organs have bellows that blow air through separate organ pipes. The organ's operator can block the airflow from the bellow muzzles to the pipes by mechanically feeding a long strip of paper in front of the pipes, effectively silencing the sound. If you punch a hole in that strip and make it pass along one of the muzzles, the air shoots through and creates a tone in the pipe. Now here's the thing: if you lengthen the hole in the strip, and make it a longer slit, the tone will sound for longer. If you alternate the placement of the holes to pass along various muzzles, you get a melody. If you make a sequence of holes to create sound at the same time, you can form chords. This principle is also used digitally today, in the piano editors of DAW software, where produces add separate notes (holes) and drag them out to create longer-sounding notes. So next time you're listening to your favourite digital artist, remember it's just street organ music. :) Cheers from the Netherlands, for your awesome video.

I may be getting this completely wrong, so take this with a grain of salt, but Ada Lovelace's father, Lord Byron, the poet, was a huge supporter of the Luddites, who were weavers who were against the automation of the looms. Apparently, they never agreed on anything.

Yes more combos of your software engineering and fibre crafting knowledge bases please! That’s a hard win in this nerd’s books.

A long time ago, I saw a film ( maybe on PBS, I can't remember) about how machines were invented and the start of the industrial revolution. It said that the machines were invented by looking at the way musical instruments worked, specifically the correlation between the opening and closing of keys on a woodwind instrument that would create a different sound. I found it so fascinating.

I would love more videos connecting computing technology and fabric textiles. This was fascinating.

Yes more of these nerdy technology, history, cultural textile connections. Fascinating

There's a historical village (Greenfield Village) run by the Henry Ford Museum just outside of Detroit, and they have a working Jacquard loom--I loved to stand and watch it being used when I was a kid! Definitely need to go back now as an adult since I'll have an even greater appreciation of it. (A lot of other cool textile stuff in the village as well in the museum--totally worth a visit if you're ever in the area.)

As an engineer the evolution from the textile industry to computers is so interesting. The development of Knitting machines, weaving looms, sewing machines, etc is an interesting field.

In my knitting journey I've started into color work, and it's been fun to think of the stockinette stitches as pixels. Long ago I saw a maker who'd converted an 8-bit computer game screen into cross stitch. Seriously cool! While the whole project is a bit ambitious for my knitting journey, I have started to collect ideas for working these pixely game sprites into a beanie or scarf just to keep knitting fresh and interesting. It's been part of my self reflection while knitting to look at how my brain as overlayed this game/computer part onto the knitting part. Not knitting related, but several years ago Bruce Sterling and William Gibson co-authered a book called The Difference Engine. The Babbage machines played a part in the book, so now when I look at these large knitting machines like you've pointed out, I get flashbacks to this interesting what-if science fiction story. And finally, your ad is very timely as I was thinking about revisiting my failed Algebra classes. Thanks for a great video!

When I first learned programming, literally on day one, I said “oh, it’s just a knitting pattern!”

omg, punchcards! we used then in the 70s to sort out the household chores for a collective i was living in. thx for the history :-)

Saving this video to share with my students! I teach Modern History and in our first class of the semester we go over the textile industry's role in setting off the Industrial Revolution, from its connection to the steam engine that launches the "first wave" of the IR to the coding that led to the computers/automation of the "third wave" 🪢 There is a working loom on display at a museum called "La Manufacture" in Roubaix (a suburb of Lille, in the north of France), which was once one of the "textile capitals" of Europe. They showed several older pieces of textile tech, but the massive loom certainly was impressive to see in action!

Yes to more content like this! I find it so interesting, but most of the info I find about it is either from a "conputer person" not really understanding the finer details of textiles, or from a "crafting person" not really understanding computers/code. And you know both AND are very good at explaining/storytelling!

This is so fascinating. The more I delve into textiles and knitting the more I realise just how versatile a piece of string is for storing data, everything from quipos to espionage to modelling hyperbolic space. It's so underrated.

A much younger me was an Avionics technician. Now I quilt and knit, but this sort of thing has always been fascinating to me. The only thing I wonder (right now) is what can the embroidered computer do?

My great grandmother taught me to use a table top loom she had large floor looms that I still own. She also taught me to knit crochet and tat I’m so great full to have had her in my life till I was 12

That was fascinating. I’m just as happy listening to information like this as watching something being made.

James Burke made this connection referencing paisley design programming for looms in the "Connections" series. Thanks for making this video sharing this new take on the history.

Your excitement for this subject is infectious. I love it!

im a fourth year IT major and THIS is my roman empire!!!!!! i wanted to do a project at one point with Dicken's Tale of Two Cities, where the character (only known as madame defarge) codes written language into her knitting pieces! the book was written only a few years after morse code became standard in europe, so binary representations of... well, anything were relatively unheard of! thank you for another awesome video :)

When studying to be an engineer, we programmed a central computer using punch cards! I took a job over the Xmas holidays punching them too. God I’m old.

This is so interesting! Thank you so much for putting this together. As a retired engineer and avid knitter and crocheter, I can’t say I love this enough.

I used those computer punch cards in college. So interesting that they started out as loom instructions!

This video was amazing! Thank you for all of the time and effort you put into making it! I could watch an entire series about this

As soon as I saw the title I was looking forward to a video on Jacquard looms, they are so cool! The Bandwebermuseum in Wuppertal (free to visit!) has a working Jacquard loom - and also all the auxiliary machines in working order as well, they show the entire process, from pattern design to woven fabric! Like, they have the machine for making the holes in punch cards, and another one to connect the punch cards to each other and into a loop so the pattern can be repeated without having to feed in a new stack of cards each time. It's such a cool process!

Yes, more fiber and computer programs please!

There is a Jaquard Loom at Lang's Pioneer Village near Peterborough, Ontario Canada. I enjoyed watching the weaver.

What a fascinating history! After watching several of your machine knitting videos I was wondering about the connection between the punchcards of the knitting machines and those of the early computers, and now I know more!

My grandfather worked with punch cards and I've recently seen a documentary about German Brocade weaving and it makes perfect sense I can't mention all the details that pop into my head but it's really a pattern Especially when I started weaving little tapestries I felt so connected to all the ancestors doing the math and the craft Like over or under or 0 or 1 its very comparable even for a semi Amateur like me

This was so interesting! Thank you for sharing. My field is music, which has very little overlap with engineering, so I tend to subconsciously count myself out of conversations about it. But this video made the history accessible and interesting at once.

Wow! You took me back to the Army in the 1970s. I was a key punch operator for a supply unit.

About 12 years ago I visited Maison des Canuts in Lyon. It’s a workshop where they have a working jacquard loom and other fascinating looms. Highly recommend if you’re ever nearby.

I assumed that the knitting machine punchcards were simply an offshoot of computer punchcards. It’s fascinating to find out it’s more the other way around! Brilliant overview of a fascinating topic. I don’t think people realise how mathematical knitting, sewing and garment production is. I used to read a blog of an engineer who was a sewer and she once expressed that frustration and described making a garment as something like (I forget the exact words) as a “3d construction problem”, especially as you’re taking something effectively 2d like fabric and making it 3d. I can’t hear enough on the mathematics of crafting (especially as traditionally female coded crafting tends to evoke unfair derision as somehow not being intellectual). Love this! ❤ More, please! 🙏

I love computer history. I can completely geek out to it.

As a software engineer that crochets, this makes my heart so happy!!! ❤

Check out the American Coverlet museum in Pennsylvania. I had the pleasure of visiting a couple summers ago and it was amazing. The looms are there along with the punch cards and many examples of beautiful coverlets.

This is the sort of thing that gets me closer to my line of work, and I think about it a lot. I follow some channels which start off from earlier times (prehistory, for one) or start off from a particular period of ancient history. They evolve from there and at some point literally make (by hand) and integrate the string for their machinery. If you also think of how ancient cultures (and even modern ones) used weaving as a form of communication, it begins to parallel what code is about, even though weaving is more human and symbolic. Anyway, the evolution with such things is exactly what inspires the punch card...and punch tape. Kurt Vonnegut's first novel, Player Piano, would resemble a documentary when he reflects on witnessing people's reaction of this invention for certain machinery. Though, he was thinking more along the nature of the automaton, the type of thing the ancient Greeks made sport about. But, perhaps not far off. By then, they would be called NC machines. Nowadays, they've slapped a full-fledge computer to them, and now it's a CNC machine. The exact technology I use in my career. But I did start off the old fashioned way and appreciate this perspective. I like how poetic it is.

More like this! I love this kind of stuff. Thank you for a lovely episode.

This is amazing! I would love to hear more (:

this is awesome! i'd love to learn more!

Wow that's fascinating! I was at a sight that had a working jacard look but sadly it wasn't being operated that day. It's really stunning what lovely fabrics can be made this way. Feel free to do more about any of this or just random historical things that you find!

I found this fascinating and would love more videos like this!

As a knitter and crocheter who starts her education in IT next summer this was really fascinating. If you feel line it please do more videos like this one

Love the concept of this video! Thank you for sharing this history with us!

Thankyou for such an interesting look at the conjunction of textiles & computers. I would love to hear more on this topic, or any other scientific aspects of other textile crafts. Best wishes from Czechia!

yes, yes! more please!! love the crossing of computers/math and fabric/fashion! thank you!

I'm a software developer as well. I never made the punchcard connection. Very cool!

Yes please please please more of this! This was so fascinating and informative. Thank you.

Yes please more of this information it’s so interesting thank you.😊

I would love to learn more! I geek out on this kind of info!

Thank you!! This was fascinating!!

Yes, I totally am interested in more about this topic. And I wholeheartedly agree with the other commenter who said this video was too short. 😊

This was such a fascinating video I loved it so much. Such interesting history.

Yes please! This was fascinating to learn about! I did not know any of this but it makes perfect sense! Thank you!

Faszinating video! I especially enjoyed the embroidered computer. How cool!

Thank you! This was really interesting!

Ada Lovelace is one of my heroes! I had no idea of the connection between the jacquard loom and computing. What a fascinating connection! More please 😊

what a wonderfully presented explanation!

This is amazing! Thank you! 👏🏼

Absolutely fascinating!!!

This is super interesting, I would love to hear more! 🤩

I loved this so much! As a fellow scientist, I am drawn fast to this kind of content. Thanks for sharing!

A fascinating and beautiful story. Thank you.

This is incredibly interesting! I never knew this about computers and fabric. Thank you so much, absolutely fascinating!

Congrats on the Brilliant sponsorship! I see it at a badge of honor personally ^^ I would love to see more videos on this type of subject :)

This is so cool and fascinating! I LOVE textiles and fabric and fibre.

LOVE THIS and would love more videos about it if you're ever so inclined

Truly fascinating. I did know some of the info about looms but not all. I love knowing the history behind the crafts we dabble in today.

I would watch a million videos about this subject, I think it's so so fascinating! loved the video!!!

I would love to have explained or to see video on how the punch card works on your knitting machine! I think this is all very cool

I’ve never heard this before. That’s so cool! I would love to hear more

YES PLEASE textile history! I am here for more knowledge

I've just been reading armor of Light by Ken follett and this loom is mentioned in that book and it's just a funny coincidence to see your video around at the same time. Very fascinating. I love all of the interesting topics you come up with. Great channel

I love learning more about all of that! Thank you for that wonderful video. And your french pronunciation was actually quite good. Could you do a video explaining how punch cards work, for those unfamiliair with it?

Love love this video. If you have the time, I'd absolutely watch and learn more.

That is fascinating! I studied computer engineering and we did not learn this when learning the history of computers.

The punch cards remind me of card weaving. Card weaving is obviously a much smaller scale than the big looms. I look at some patterns with 20-30 cards and some moving forward and backwards and it overwhelms, but I will get there.

This video is so interesting, thank you so much ! I work in computer science and had no idea that weaving looms inspired computers. We did learn about Ada Lovelace in University but not in details like that. I would be really interested in other videos linking fiber crafts and computer science!

Yes! More please! 🤩 This is so interesting!

This video is amazing! Please have more videos about this topic :) I always loved that both of my passions, textiles and software development have such a deep connection. I guess like many of my fellow computer nerds in the comments, knitting and also sewing feels so natural when you code. And thank you for the push to Wikipedia to find the closest jacquard loom in Germany :D

My first full time job included key punch operations. And you make complete sense with your first line of this video. It's all mathematics and on and off switches.

Love this so much! More please! Look Mum No Computer did a great video about rope core memory - it's called "Drum Machine using NASA technology!"

So fun to see the old computer punch card. Screams and tears would happen if you dropped the deck of punch cards you had labored on for so many hours. Your problems with having to re-punch cards for your knitting machine brought back memories. Interestingly, my initial computer class(1970s) instructor mentioned how our punch cards were related to how jacquard looms worked. Also remember “Do not fold spindle ore mutilate”

I wish I could double thumbs up this video!! So amazing. I’m a software engineer by trade, and I’ve always used knitting mental models to help me understand things like abstraction and dependency injection - heck, even functional programming. I had no idea of this history though. Thank you for sharing this!

Love your sweater

Very interesting. I would love more similar content.

I feel like we skipped from 2 people to a lol with one picking up the shafts to Jacquard, but there were multi-treadle looms that could be threaded to operate different shaft pick-up patterns which were operated by a single person similar to the pedals of a piano.

ohhh, yes please, very much more of this type of content (though I do love everything you choose to share with us, so yeah!). thank you

I would be interested. It is so fascinating how the textile world influences so many other areas of our world Thank you

Fascinating! 😮

Nice video, well done. 'Earliest computer' has some issues with how 'computer' is defined and analog computers. Astrolabes date back to ca 200BC, the Ankythera mechanism dates to ca 100BC, the planisphere was described in ca. 200 ad, slide rules are from 1620-30.

There a video on RU-vid of a much smaller jacquard loom, and I regularly share it with software folks after telling them about how punch cards started out in textiles.

❤❤❤ thank you! Great video!

Love this type of video, but make it longer please! 😅

This is so cool! The only thing missing for me is understanding how in the world these punch cards work! 😂

Ahhhh yes! There’s a lace museum not all too far from me, and that’s where I leaned that there’s a link between lace and computers. Such a fascinating topic, on top of the fact the museum was a lot of fun.