A HISTORY OF REAL-TIME INDUSTRIAL-PROCESS CONTROL IN THE DUTCH STEEL-MAKING INDUSTRY

In this paper the history of automation of real-time industrial proces s control is studied via a case study of the Dutch Hoogovens Steel Com pany. Before the Second World War, in this company, process control wa s based on intuition. After the War, as a consequence of changes in th e steel market and the increasing complexity of steelmaking technology , demand for computing equipment grew. Prior to the introduction of di gital computers, the company applied special slide rules and built sev eral analogue computers for process control. In this paper the reasons for the choice between alternative computing technologies are address ed as the evolution of process control automation is studied.