Blog and CNC machine: what they have in common

  1. Step 1. Blog — evolved from — Newspaper. A personal publication.
  2. Step 2. Newspaper — uses — Rotary printing press. Mass print runs.
  3. Step 3. Rotary printing press — evolved from — Gutenberg printing press. Cylinders instead of a flat press.
  4. Step 4. Gutenberg printing press — works like — Jacquard loom. An analogy, not proven influence: both set type and a chain of punched cards are a replaceable pattern that a machine reproduces over and over.
  5. Step 5. Jacquard loom — uses — Program control of a machine. The chain of cards is the program of the pattern.
  6. Step 6. Program control of a machine — is used in — CNC machine. The tool’s movement is set by a program — at first on punched tape.

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