Automation is a regulated sequence of movements and steps triggered by an external signal, a self-acting sequence of technical processes according to a fixed plan or in relation to fixed states.
Automation is a self-repeating sequence of algorithms. It serves the independent triggering of reactions.
In computers and networks, automation allows the execution of complex controls with many steps and a lot of data.
Automation increases speed and safety of processes and ensures freedom from errors.
By this it increases precision and rationalization in the production of goods and enhances delivery of services.
Automation only works with a constant supply of energy.
Copying nautical or logarithmic tables is tedious work and even more prone to errors. The English mathematician Charles Babbage therefore suggested to the British Admiralty to build a machine for this purpose. Inspired by the new mechanical looms and by the development of automata in the emerging watchmaking industry. He combined rollers and cams in order to apply mathematical operations, which always remained the same, to different initial values with constant precision. He thus created the first, still purely mechanical calculators in the 19th century. They are the precursors of today’s computers. Ada Lovelace developed the programs to run these machines. s are created that can also reproduce irregular movements as well as forward and backward movements. Babbage clocks are, in a sense, ‘non-linear’ clocks. Their microprocessors open up elements of complex rules (algorithms) to modern haute horlogerie, that we know otherwise from computers.
