Otto Mayr: contributions to the history of feedback control

The publication, in 1969, of Dr. Otto Mayr´s book, Zur Friffigeschichte der technischen Regelungen (The Origins of Feedback Control), revealed that both the concept and its application were much older. The reader rapidly becomes aware that the book is no simple catalog of inventions and inventors, but is a deep and subtle exploration of the history of ideas. A second theme that Mayr draws out of the narrative is the change in the relationship between science and technology that was occurring during the Victorian period