30 Jul
2005
30 Jul
'05
9:30 p.m.
Brent Hilpert wrote:
Thanks for the citation; there is indeed a description of that specific event
in that paper (I've got hold of it now):
The first
instance of closed-loop control using a digital computer
in an industrial setting supposedly happened at a Texaco refinery
in Port Arthur in March 15, 1959, using an RW-300 computer
(does anybode have a good reference on this?).
I have a (vague) recollection of seeing an article in the IEEE
"Annals of the History of Computing" publication that mentioned this.
A search for Port Arthur found the following link to the table of contents for
the Spring 1995 issue:
http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/mags/an/&a…
which contains an article titled "Pioneering Work in the Field of Computer
Process Control".
I can't view the entire article online, so I'm not sure if it is the article I
recall or not
(.. saw it several years ago in the paper version). The computer system. The Ramo-Woolridge computer used
at Texaco had an
8,000-word drum memory. Inputs to the computer included 26
flow rates, 72 temperatures, two pressures, and three propylene
analyses.
Carlos.