A History of Control Engineering 1930-1955
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Following his book on the origin of control engineering (1800-1930) the author now traces development through the critical period 1930-1955, widely identified as the period of 'classical' control theory. In the 1930s basic automatic control devices were developed and used in process industries, as were servos for the control of aircraft and ships and amplifiers for the telephone system and early computers etc.
Inspec keywords: feedback amplifiers; servomechanisms; military aircraft; process control
Other keywords: wartime; process control; servomechanism; electronic negative feedback amplifier; control technology
Subjects: Control applications in manufacturing processes; Control technology and theory (production); Defence industry; Control in industrial production systems; Military control systems; Aerospace control; Industrial processes; Aerospace industry; General control topics
- Book DOI: 10.1049/PBCE047E
- Chapter DOI: 10.1049/PBCE047E
- ISBN: 9780863412998
- e-ISBN: 9781849193450
- Page count: 262
- Format: PDF
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Front Matter
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1 Control technology in the 1930s
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As at any time of rapid technical change the understanding of the problems and the adoption of new ideas, devices, and techniques varied greatly, both between and within various application areas, and there is no single definitive path of innovation. The experience of A.L. Whiteley when he joined the Industrial Engineering department of the British Thomson-Houston Company in September 1930 epitomises the general state of industrial control technology in the early 1930s. He recalls that the department designed electrical drive systems for the steel and paper manufacture, for printing, and for mine winders, lifts, cranes, excavators and machine tools. Design was done by 'control gear engineers' and amounted to no more than the layout of the system using standard relays and contactors. Occasionally, but with great reluctance, some design and development work might be done on a new relay or contactor.
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2 Process control: technology and theory
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This chapter discusses the technological and theoretical aspects of process control. The development of process control concepts, theory and devices, during the late thirties was largely advanced by engineers working for instrument companies. In disseminating information about control devices and their application the sales and application engineers of the industrial instrument manufacturing companies played an important role, in particular in encouraging and persuading small companies to follow the example of the larger companies. Ziegler and Nichols explained their methods for tuning controllers and process engineers were introduced to the frequency domain techniques developed by the communications engineers, there is little doubt that the major expertise in the wide scale application of automatic control devices was to be found among engineers employed by the instrument manufacturing companies.
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3 The electronic negative feedback amplifier
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This chapter discusses the developments and the use of electronic negative feedback amplifier. The comparison in the developments in telephone and then wireless communication systems illustrates the great significance of Black's recognition that negative feedback has benefits other than simply providing stability. In examining the way in which 'feedback' has been used in radio applications, Black clarified understanding and through his realisation that the behaviour of the complete system could be modified by changing the passive components in the feedback network, he pointed the way forward. John Taplin of MIT adapted the Nyquist tools for use in general feedback systems in about 1937 when he applied the techniques to a servomechanism. The use of frequency response techniques for investigating system performance led to attempts to relate frequency and transient response data. For the dominant position occupied by frequency domain techniques for control system design. The search of the communication engineers for methods of achieving stable frequency oscillators epitomises the use of negative feedback.
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4 Theory and design of servomechanisms
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This chapter discusses the theory and design of servomechanics. The central point of the chapters was Hazen's recognition that negative feedback made the overall behaviour of a servomechanism dependent primarily on the difference between the input and output, and that the effects of non-linearities and variation in parameters of the amplifying devices used in the forward path were significantly reduced.
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5 Wartime: problems and organisations
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This chapter discusses wartime problems. The problems like anti-aircraft fire control and the attempts made at finding solutions. Most of the control system advances arose out of work on fire-control applications, that is the detection, tracking, and prediction of the future position of a moving target, and the aiming and firing of guns.
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6 Development of design techniques for servomechanisms 1939-1945
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This chapter discusses the emergence of what are now referred to as the classical frequency response design techniques for automatic control systems which came from the work done during the war on three problems: high power servomechanisms for remote control of heavy guns, automatic-tracking radar systems, and power operated gun turrets for aircraft.
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7 Smoothing and prediction: 1939-1945
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This chapter discusses how we can determine by gathering statistical data the dynamics of the system so that we can design appropriate control devices.
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8 The classical years: 1945-1955
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This chapter discusses process control, servomechanics, and Nyquist method.
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Back Matter
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