The Jacquard system was developed in 1804–05 by Joseph-Marie Jacquard (Jacquard, Joseph-Marie) (q.v.) of France, but it soon spread elsewhere. His system improved on the punched-card technology of Jacques de Vaucanson's loom (1745). Jacquard's loom utilized interchangeable punched cards that controlled the weaving of the cloth so that any desired pattern could be obtained automatically. These punched cards were adopted by the noted English inventor Charles Babbage (Babbage, Charles) as an input-output medium for his proposed analytical engine and were used by the American statistician Herman Hollerith (Hollerith, Herman) to feed data to his census machine. They were also used as a means of inputting data into digital computers but were eventually replaced by electronic devices.