A minor Adventure in Vintage Computing

[Carlos E Murillo-Sanchez]

Brent Hilpert wrote:

> > 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/&toc=comp/mags/an/1995/01/a1toc.xml
>
> 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).

Thanks for the citation; there is indeed a description of that specific event
in that paper (I've got hold of it now):

> 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.