A stiff rectangular card punched with a specific pattern of holes, used to control the lifting mechanism of individual warp threads in a Jacquard loom. A sequence of these cards is laced together into a continuous chain. The presence or absence of a hole dictates whether a specific hook drops, determining the woven pattern line by line.
Heard on the job
The pattern chain snapped because a card got caught in the cylinder mechanism.
Also heard as
- Jacquard card
- punch card
Do not mix it up with
- Cotton card: A card in weaving controls patterns, while a cotton card is a machine with wire teeth used to align fibers before spinning.