Editing Instrumentation (section)

===Pre-industrial===
Elements of industrial instrumentation have long histories. Scales for comparing weights and simple pointers to indicate position are ancient technologies. Some of the earliest measurements were of time. One of the oldest [[water clock]]s was found in the tomb of the [[ancient Egypt]]ian pharaoh [[Amenhotep I]], buried around 1500 BCE.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Early Clocks | journal = NIST | url = https://www.nist.gov/pml/general/time/early.cfm | access-date = 1 March 2012| date = 2009-08-12 }}</ref> Improvements were incorporated in the clocks. By 270 BCE they had the rudiments of an automatic control system device.<ref>{{cite web | title = Building automation history page | url = http://www.building-automation-consultants.com/building-automation-history.html | access-date = 1 March 2012 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110708104028/http://www.building-automation-consultants.com/building-automation-history.html | archive-date = 8 July 2011 }}</ref>

In 1663 [[Christopher Wren]] presented the Royal Society with a design for a "weather clock". A drawing shows meteorological sensors moving pens over paper driven by clockwork. Such devices did not become standard in meteorology for two centuries.<ref>
{{Citation
 | last = Multhauf
 | first = Robert P.
 | title = The Introduction of Self-Registering Meteorological Instruments
 | place = Washington, D.C. 
 | publisher = Smithsonian Institution
 | year = 1961
 | pages = 95–116
}} United States National Museum, Bulletin 228. Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology: Paper 23. 
Available from Project Gutenberg.</ref> The concept has remained virtually unchanged as evidenced by pneumatic chart recorders, where a pressurized bellows displaces a pen. Integrating sensors, displays, recorders, and controls was uncommon until the industrial revolution, limited by both need and practicality.