Joseph Marie Jacquard shares the problem of other famous figures
whose influence similarly exploded from middle age but never
left written materials by their own hand. In Jacquard's case,
after years of desperate poverty, this weaver made the ultimate
improvement in hand loom technology in the year 1804.
Unfortunately, the scant records outside his 15 minutes of fame
let biographers slant his story to their purpose. Perhaps, he
was a rags to riches example of one of the Great Men of history.
James Essinger takes this tack in his book, Jacquard's Web.
Alternately, his improvement could have been mere luck of
integrating the best of prior engineering improvements to the
loom. James Burke's documentary series, Connections, explored
those types of serendipitous and demographic factors in the
history of science. In a similar vein, understand that this node
is also biased toward a narrative regarding Jacquard as embedded
in his environ with an eye to his legacy as well. Lyon resides
at the union of the French river