This episode breaks the ice with a bit of the pre-history of control theory. We discuss three iconic ancestors of the science of feedback, including water clocks developed by Ktesibios, the earliest known thermostat,  and governors, a class of mechanical devices,  which,  without exaggeration, have enabled the first industrial Revolution in Britain. Outline 00:00 -Intro  01:32 - Ktesibios 06:15 - Cornelis Drebble 11:55 - Governors Episode links O. Mayr - The origins of feedback controlK. Kelly - Out of ControlKtesibios https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CtesibiusDrebble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelis_Drebbelhttps://nautil.us/issue/12/feedback/the-vulgar-mechanic-and-his-magical-ovenhttps://sites.google.com/site/ukdrebbel/Governors J.C. Maxwell, “On Governors,”Proc. of the Royal Society of London, vol. 16, pp. 270-283, 1868.S.Bennett- A History of Control Engineering 1800-1930Special issue on control education - The United Kingdom, by M.C. Smith, IEEE Control Systems Magazine, pp. 51-56, April 1996 (check also here).  Podcast info Podcast website: https://www.incontrolpodcast.com/ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/incontrol/id1624068002 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7dZvt77XNtHxyrFqM8YTwf RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1632769.rss Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl83hwBSVRLYj2NWS08P9bg/featured Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InControl-podcast-114303337936834 Twitter: https://twitter.com/IncontrolP Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/incontrol_podcast/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/incontrolpodcast/ Acknowledgments and sponsors This episode was supported by the National Centre of Competence in Research on «Dependable, ubiquitous automation», which you can check here: https://nccr-automation.ch/nccr-automation The podcast benefits from the help of an incredibly talented and passionate team. Special thanks to Arian Bastani, Benjamin Sawicki, Elise Cahard, Florian Dorfler, Frederik Banis, John Lygeros, ETH studio (Philipp Zumbrunnen), and mirrorlake studio (Roman Frischknecht). The support of the Swiss National Science Foundation is also gratefully acknowledged.  Music was composed by A New Element. Support the show