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"Man has been devising control devices ever since the beginning of civilization, as can be expected from the prevalence of regulation problems. Control historians attribute the first conscious design of a regulatory feedback mechanism in the West to the Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633). Drebbel designed a clever contraption combining thermal and mechanical effects in order to keep the temperature of an oven at a constant temperature. Being an alchemist as well as an inventor, Drebbel believed that his oven, the Athanor, would turn lead into gold. Needless to say, he did not meet with much success in this endeavor, notwithstanding the inventiveness of his temperature control mechanism."

-- From J.W. Polderman and J.C. Willems, Introduction to Mathematical Systems Theory: A Behavioral Approach