"The first industrial digital computer based control system was the catalytic polymerisation unit of the Port Arthur (Texas) plant of the Texaco Company which went on-line in March 1959. It used a Ramo- Wooldridge RW-300 computer and had 103 process measurements and 14 control outputs of which five, controlling the reactor feed valves, were direct digital control outputs, all the other outputs were set point adjustments for analogue controllers. The Ramo- Wooldridge Company, an advanced scientific and engineering services company, had been involved since 1953 in the USAF ballistic missile programme, but was looking to diversify into civil applications and had initiated the project with the Texaco company in 1956. In 1958 it merged with Thompson Products, a supplier of precision parts for automobiles and aircraft, to form the Thompson- Ramo-Wooldridge Company and this company remained until the mid-1960s the major supplier of digital computers and computer control systems for industrial applications." (stuart bennett, who is giving credits to stout and williams.)

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