Inventions
Numerical Control
Industrial Engineering
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Numerical control is the automated control of machine tools using coded instructions stored on a medium such as punched cards or punched tape, rather than a machinist manually operating the tool for each cut. The first numerically controlled machines appeared in the 1940s and 1950s, built by modifying existing machine tools with motors that could follow the instructions recorded on punched or magnetic tape. These early tape-driven servomechanisms were rapidly extended with analog and then digital computers, producing computer numerical control, which has since replaced most manually operated production machining.
Facts
Patent or First-Use Date YearYear John T. Parsons filed his numerical-control machine-tool patent application; Parsons is described as having pioneered the underlying NC concept more broadly in the 1940s. SignificanceParsons and his collaborators were the first to use computer methods to solve machining problems, including the accurate interpolation of the curves describing helicopter rotor blades. 1 Sources
1. John T. Parsons (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationPatent sectionQuote, Patent section
On January 14, 1958, he received a patent for a Motor Controlled Apparatus for Positioning Machine Tool (patent number 2,820,187, filed on May 5, 1952).
1. John T. Parsons (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationCareer sectionQuote, Career section
Together, they were the first to use computer methods to solve machining problems, in particular, the accurate interpolation of the curves describing helicopter rotor blades.
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