Description

This item is a plaque htat reads "A Numerically Controlled Machine Tool."

Numerical control technology that revolutionized the machine tool industry was a major project of the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory in the 1950s. Computer-controlled 3-D printers are everywhere today, from the highest-tech industrial manufacturing to the back sheds of hobbyist makers. But in the 1950s, machine tooling was still done mostly by hand, relying on the guidance of a human machinist to set the initial pattern recorded in a template. This method was fine for relatively simple repeatable patterns -- a million fenders for the current model year -- but was not an efficient way to do experimental complex one-time or short-run parts -- half a dozen fender variations to test for next year. Industry leaders and scientists could see how useful it would be to go directly from a computer design to a finished milled product and approached MIT to find a solution. The MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory and consultants from the Whirlwind project worked together to create numerically-controlled milling machines that would take direct input from punched tape. This plaque was made with an experimental version of this machine tool around 1952.