Toilet paper and jacquard loom: what they have in common

  1. Step 1. Toilet paper — is made of — Wood pulp. Cellulose.
  2. Step 2. Wood pulp — is material for — Newspaper. Cheap newsprint.
  3. Step 3. Newspaper — uses — Rotary printing press. Mass print runs.
  4. Step 4. Rotary printing press — evolved from — Gutenberg printing press. Cylinders instead of a flat press.
  5. Step 5. 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.

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