A History of Control Engineering 1800-1930

In one respect, the Second Work War did a disservice to control engineering, since it gave rise to textbooks that ignored the historical development of control science in the preceding centuries. Yet the structure of controllers designed by modem theories often turns out to resemble that found by investigators in the 19th century, or even earlier. Consequently, control engineers have begun taking a belated interest in the history of their subject. The present book is the first in English to attempt a broad account of the development of control engineering during the period 1800-1930.