The flood of literature on automation which has appeared in recent months has left no one in doubt as to the importance of the subject. Most of the discussion, unfortunately, has been of the effects of automation rather than of automation itself; the public has not been allowed to acquire any background knowledge, with the result that automation remains mysterious and menacing. I came across an example of this recently, when I was asked to take part in some Staff Association negotiations on the introduction of machines into office work ‘in case they try to blind us with science’. In fact all the science needed could have been explained in five minutes, and it would then have been clear that in this case there was no need for anxiety.

Until recently it was not easy for the layman to obtain reliable information on the many topics which are grouped under the heading of automation, but this situation has been much improved by the publication of an official survey which is a model of lucidity and careful writing. This survey picks out three streams of technical progress: automatic data-processing, automatic machining, and automatic process-control. I shall discuss each of these in turn, describing first examples of the equipment involved and afterwards the kind of effect which this equipment is having.

We begin with automatic data-processing, which in its most advanced form is carried out by electronic digital computers or ‘brains’. These computers are perhaps the most remarkable of automatic machines.