Joseph Marie Jacquard was a French weaver and merchant.
Background
Joseph Marie Charles was born on July 7, 1752 in Oullins, Rhône, France. He had a big family - 9 brothers and sisters. His father was a master weaver in his hometown Lyon. His mother was Antoinette Rive, she died in 1762. Of his 9 brothers and sisters, only Joseph's sister and him reached the adulthood. When Joseph was only 10 years old, his father died from illness in 1772.
He is known as Joseph Marie Jacquard, but Jacquard wasn't really his surname. Jacquard was the nickname of his family. His family's real surname was Charles, but since several generation's of the Charles family lived in Lyon, in the part known as Couzon-au-Mont d’Or (North side, near the river Saone), the community of Lyon were in the need to distinguish all the people, so they gave Joseph's family their dit (nickname) Jacquard. The first bearer of Jacqaurd dit in Joseph's family was his grandfather Barthélemy Jacquard, also known as Barthélemy Charles.
Education
He couldn't be educated because he had to work odd jobs at his fathers' loom. Later, he was educated by his brother-in-law Jean-Marie Barret.
Career
After his father’s death, Joseph inherited the Charles family house, two looms, workshop, vineyard and quarry in his hometown Couzon-au-Mont d’Or. He went into business enterprise and dabbled into real estate business. In 1778 he declared himself as a master weaver and silk tradesman for the purposes of the French government.
In 1780 Joseph indulged himself into suspicious business enterprises and investments. This caused him and his family to fall in debt. Other consequence of his business indulgments was that he was sent to court. The court took away from him all of the assets he inherited from his father. The part of his wive's property was also taken away by the court. He and his family became poor again in 1783.
Before he became involved in the weaving business, he was doing many jobs, such as, type-founder, soldier, bleacher of straw hats and lime burner, cutlery maker and many other jobs. Later, Joseph moved out from Lyon and started working as a lime-burner. After his job as a lime-burner he moved onward working as a labourer in a quarry. He returned back to Lyon in the end of 1780s.
Later, in 1793, Jacquard and his son, Jean-Marie endeavoured to defend their city, Lyon, against the troops of Convention, but it all turned out to be an unsuccessful endeavour. After this attempt to defend Lyon, he and his son joined the Revolutionary army under false identities. They fought under the commandment of General Jean Charles Pichegru. Joseph's son was shot down in one of the battles of the Rhine campaign in 1795. Joseph came back to Lyon devastated because of his son's death. He stayed at a mental hospital still grieving Jean-Marie's death. After his medical treatment was over, Joseph worked on many peculiar jobs - as a repairer of looms, a weaver, straw hats bleacher, driver of horse-drawn carts.
He applied for his first invention - a treadle loom in July of 1800. After treadle loom, he invented a fish net weaving loom. He received the approval for his first loom, the treadle loom, on December 23, 1800. The first looms he invented weren't a success at all. Not only that they didn't operate properly, many people who manually opposed to his inventions. After the successful exposition of his looms in Paris, he decided to expose his looms in Lyon. The manual weavers of silk weren't happy with the inventions of automatized loom. They feared they will lose their jobs and already low incomes because of Joseph's invention. Weavers mobbed up Joseph and broke up his inventions. His life was in danger three times because of his inventions.
Joseph's success came in the year of 1803 - a Lyon silk tradesman urged Joseph to go visit Paris. Joseph went to Paris and paid a visit to the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. After proper examination of the Jacques de Vaucanson's loom there, he proposed various enhancements of his own. On April 12, 1805, Emperor Napoleon and Empress Josephine visited Lyon and viewed Jacquard’s new loom. On April 15, 1805, the emperor granted the patent for Jacquard’s loom to the city of Lyon. In return, Jacquard received a lifelong pension of 3,000 francs; furthermore, he received a royalty of 50 francs for each loom that was bought and used during the period from 1805 to 1811.
Jacquard died at Oullins, Rhône, France, 7 August 1834.
Joseph Marie came from strict Catholic background. His father and mother pushed him to pray up to 10 time a day. He was traumatized because of this, but remained a Catholic.
Politics
Joseph Marie Charles dit Jacquard was a French patriot. He was never included in any political party, but he participated together with his son in defending Lyon against the troops of the Convention. He and his son also participated in the Revolutionary War under the governance of Jean-Charles Pichegru.
Personality
This genius never talked too much, but when he was talking he was proposing genius ideas and solutions. He was a calm and friendly person full of enthusiasm. He also had a strong personality and didn't lose himself when others wanted to push him down because of his inventions.
Physical Characteristics:
He was of average height for a man - 170 cm. Joseph had rounded brown eyes and straight eyebrows. His lips were thin but long. His look was always mystic and surrounded by a strange energy. But behind this serious look was a friendly and good man.
Connections
He only married once to Claudine Boichon in 1778. They had one son from their marriage - Jean-Marie Charles, but he died as a hero in the Battle of the Rhein in 1795.