Tools & manufacturing · 1952

Numerical control

Punched tape drives a milling machine along a computed path.

John Parsons and the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory demonstrated a numerically controlled milling machine in 1952. Computer control of machine tools led to CNC, CAD/CAM and robotics.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 3

ENIAC 1945
Milling machine 1818
Jacquard punched cards 1804

What it led to 3

Unimate industrial robot 1961
Computer-aided design 1963
Fused filament fabrication 1989

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Computation per constant dollar, 1850-2006 Latest: 7.3B million units of computer power per 2006 $ (2003) Source: Nordhaus 2007, Two Centuries of Productivity Growth in Computing, J. Econ. Hist. 67(1), Table 6