# Earliest control panel?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-control-panel/941695
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 9, 2021, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-control-panel/941695 "2021-05-09T06:09:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 17

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### Author: ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2021, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-control-panel/941695/17 "2021-05-10T04:40:52Z")

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Chemical manufacture started about 4000 BC with stuff like glass, bricks, …

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I would hazard a guess that one of the first control panels showed up in one of those chemical plants.

Watching the color of a flame during (say during copper smelting ) and adjusting the air or fuel, counts as a control panel to me. Or a chemist watching the level of a reactant in a glass cup and adding stuff to maintain level counts as a control panel to me too.

Anyplace, where there is an observed parameter that is being controlled by humans by manipulating an input parameter, counts as a control action to me. If the observation is visual, then it’s a control panel : that’s what I am thinking.

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