Editing Automation (section)

===Industrial Revolution in Western Europe===
[[File:Tower bridge steam engine.jpg|thumb|[[Steam engine]]s promoted automation through the need to control engine speed and power.]]

The introduction of [[Engine|prime movers]], or self-driven machines advanced grain mills, furnaces, boilers, and the [[steam engine]] created a new requirement for automatic control systems including [[thermostat|temperature regulator]]s (invented in 1624; see [[Cornelius Drebbel]]), [[pressure regulator]]s (1681), [[float regulator]]s (1700) and [[speed control]] devices. Another control mechanism was used to tent the sails of windmills. It was patented by Edmund Lee in 1745.<ref name="Bennett 1979 pp"/> Also in 1745, [[Jacques de Vaucanson]] invented the first automated loom. Around 1800, [[Joseph Marie Jacquard]] created [[Jacquard machine|a punch-card system]] to program looms.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bronowski|first=Jacob|url=http://archive.org/details/ascentofman0000bron_y1z2|title=The Ascent of Man|publisher=BBC Books|year=1990|isbn=978-0-563-20900-3|location=London|page=265|author-link=Jacob Bronowski|orig-date=1973}}</ref>

In 1771 [[Richard Arkwright]] invented the first fully automated spinning mill driven by water power, known at the time as the [[water frame]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Tessie P.|last=Liu|title=The Weaver's Knot: The Contradictions of Class Struggle and Family Solidarity in Western France, 1750–1914|url=https://archive.org/details/weaversknotcontr00liut|url-access=registration|year=1994|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-8019-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/weaversknotcontr00liut/page/91 91]}}</ref> An automatic flour mill was developed by [[Oliver Evans]] in 1785, making it the first completely automated industrial process.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jacobson|first=Howard B.|title=Automation and Society|url=https://archive.org/details/automationsociet00jaco|year=1959|publisher=Philosophical Library|location=New York, NY|page=[https://archive.org/details/automationsociet00jaco/page/8 8]|author2=Joseph S. Roueek}}</ref><ref>{{Hounshell1984}}</ref>

[[File:Catalonia Terrassa mNATEC MaquinaDeVapor ReguladorDeWatt.jpg|thumb|right| A [[flyball governor]] is an early example of a feedback control system. An increase in speed would make the counterweights move outward, sliding a linkage that tended to close the valve supplying steam, and so slowing the engine. ]]

A centrifugal governor was used by Mr. Bunce of England in 1784 as part of a model [[steam crane]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1DNWAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA29-IA1|title=A course of lectures on the Steam Engine, delivered before the Members of the London Mechanics' Institution ... To which is subjoined, a copy of the rare ... work on Steam Navigation, originally published by J. Hulls in 1737. Illustrated by ... engravings|first=Charles Frederick|last=Partington|date=1 January 1826}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-xJFAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA296 |section=A Catalogue of the Models, Machine, &c. |title=Transactions of the Society Instituted at London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce |volume=XXXXI |date=1813}}</ref> The centrifugal governor was adopted by [[James Watt]] for use on a steam engine in 1788 after Watt's partner Boulton saw one at a flour mill [[Boulton & Watt]] were building.<ref name="Bennett 1979 pp">{{Harvnb|Bennett|1979|pp=}}</ref> The governor could not actually hold a set speed; the engine would assume a new constant speed in response to load changes. The governor was able to handle smaller variations such as those caused by fluctuating heat load to the boiler. Also, there was a tendency for oscillation whenever there was a speed change. As a consequence, engines equipped with this governor were not suitable for operations requiring constant speed, such as cotton spinning.<ref name="Bennett 1979 pp" />

Several improvements to the governor, plus improvements to valve cut-off timing on the steam engine, made the engine suitable for most industrial uses before the end of the 19th century. Advances in the steam engine stayed well ahead of science, both thermodynamics and control theory.<ref name="Bennett 1979 pp" /> The governor received relatively little scientific attention until [[James Clerk Maxwell]] published a paper that established the beginning of a theoretical basis for understanding control theory.