Restoration punch card jacquard University of Osnabrück

Restoration of a historical punch card jacquard in the textile design department of the University of Osnabrück

Restoration in the workshop area of textile design
As part of the restructuring of the workshop area in textile design, the historic punch card jacquard loom of the subject is being restored. In the workshop area there is a culturally and historically grown extensive equipment, which is outstanding for a textile pedagogical university in Germany. The equipment includes a punched card jacquard with card beating machine and didactic model, a keyboard loom, a pattern loom, a counter march loom and a high loom, table looms and a large number of different weaving frames and devices such as winders and warping beams. A digital hand jacquard is purchased to expand the teaching operation into the field of digitalization. In the textile field, this exemplifies the arc of tension from archaic textile techniques to industrial production techniques and digital technology.

The historic punched card Jacquard loom came to the Department of Textile Design at the University of Osnabrück via several stations. Originally acquired in the 1960s by the Neumünster Textile Museum, it came to Hanover in the 1970s via the founder of the European Textile Network ETN, Beatrijs Sterck. From there, Almut Bohnsack, formerly a professor in textile design, brought him to Osnabrück in the 80s. Almut Bohnsack was involved in the preparations for the history of technology at the Deutsches Museum in Munich and other museums. She acquired the loom together with a card-beating machine from the beginning of the 20th century, which was also in the Neumünster Textile Museum. It also includes the lacing board needed to prepare the card runs. Through this textile and cultural-historical unit, the technical and creative workflow of Jacquard weaving is traceable and reproducible.

The Jacquard loom was not operational due to improper use and downtime at the beginning of the restoration. Wolfgang Sternberg, head of the Meldorf museum weaving mill, was recruited to provide technical support. The expertise of Jürgen Menkhaus/University Carpentry was helpful during the restoration. The restoration of the card punching machine was carried out by Dipl. Ing. Hans-Heinrich Schwalenberg. Supporting work on the Jacquard head was done by former student Vanessa Seifert. The overall coordination of the project was done by textile designer Lucia Schwalenberg.

The restoration means that the punched card jacquard is once again available for teaching purposes. The loom was used for the first time for the samples for the textile excursion to Sri Lanka. Students Alexander Büsing, Tunc Güney and Lena Köster made their first own card runs in other courses. The students Amelie Gieschler, Pauline Becker and Canan Barcin helped with the warp stringing.