Brown Instrument Company.

The Brown Instrument Company was organized on April 19, 1890 in Philadelphia, Pa. in order to manufacture electrical measuring instruments. During the next two decades it became one of the nation's largest producers of industrial thermometers and thermostats. Large steel firms were Brown's most important customers as it developed a number of sophisticated devices to regulate blast furnace temperatures. In 1934 Brown merged with Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company, which was then the leading producer of automatic heat regulating and temperature control equipment. After the merger, the company began to develop industrial control systems designed to measure and adjust temperature, pressure, and the flow rates of liquids and gases. Brown's instruments brought the principles of feedback control, perfected by Elmer Sperry, to the factory floor. Its devices were particularly useful in the oil and chemical industries where the production process required careful monitoring and adjustment. In the years before World War II, the Brown Instrument Company developed a series of complex electromechanical devices incorporating a wide array of sensors, thermostats, and effectors in the automation of factory operations.

During the early 1950s, the Brown Instrument Company began to experiment with analog computers and designed industrial control systems which were much more powerful than the electromechanical models developed in the 1930s and early 1940s. The computer, a central component of the system, performed all required calculations automatically and it was, therefore, no longer necessary to pause and wait for human intervention in the production process. Production could, as a result, take place on a continuous basis and be controlled by the push of a button.

From the description of Records, 1925-1960. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122393261