A History of Control Engineering 1930-1955

Following his book on the origin of control engineering (1800-1930 (see separate entry), 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. During the war many disparate ideas were brought together for the development of aircraft tracking and response systems -- leading to classical control theory which dominated the field through the 1950s. The foundations were also being laid for the introduction of what we now term "modern" control theory.