The history and techniques ofweaving in France

Weaving is a process in which two separate sets of threads are woven at right angles to each other to form a fabric. The vertical threads are called the warp and the horizontal threads are the weft. The way in which the warp and weft threads criss-cross is called the weave.

The majority of products woven today are made in one of the three most common weaves: plain weave, satin, or twill.
The woven fabric can be plain (one colour all over), or can be woven with decorative or artistic patterns. The variety of weaves and the possibility of mixing silk yarn with other fibres (e.g. wool or cotton) means that there is no limit to the fabrics that can be created, giving an infinite number of textures, flows, falls, colours and patterns.

In 18th-century Europe, weavers worked on increasingly complex hand looms. In France, the inventions of Basile Bouchon, Jean-Baptiste Falcon and Jacques Vaucanson were important milestones in the improvement of looms. Then, in 1801, weaving underwent a decisive technical revolution with the invention of the Jacquard loom by Joseph Marie Jacquard in Lyon..

The Jacquard loom is made up of two parts: the draw loom, which is used to produce decorated (figured) fabrics, and the Jacquard mechanism, which sits on top of the draw loom.

The Jacquard mechanism was not so much an invention as a skilful combination of three techniques:

• Basile Bouchon’s needles, an adaptation of the clock mechanism to weaving, used to read a perforated tape (1725);
• Jean-Baptiste Falcon’s system of perforated pasteboard cards and an infinite chain of cards, which enabled non-stop control of the loom (1728)
• Vaucanson’s loom, which was automated by a hydraulic system and operated by analogue cylinders (1748).

The result was a semi-automatic loom with a square cylinder that controls all the threads – via 600 to 800 hooks – and selects them using a programme written on punched cards, to create varied and complicated patterns.
Its main advantage was that it could be operated by a single person. After a few improvements by the mechanic Jean-Antoine Breton, the Jacquard loom enabled faster and much cheaper production than on previous looms.

Despite initial reluctance on the part of the workers, who saw it as a threat to their jobs, people soon realised the benefits of the Jacquard loom: it made work easier and improved the quality of production.

In 1834, there were 2,885 looms operating on the slopes of the Croix-Rousse in Lyon. By the end of the 19th century, there were almost 20,000 ! The Croix-Rousse silk manufacturers began to specialise in fabrics with complex patterns, including brocade, damask and panne velvet.