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Materials & Manufacturing · Recorded milestone

Numerical-control machining

Recorded year1952

MIT's computer-controlled milling machine starts the automation of machine tools.

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Built on

Stored-program computerRecorded · 1948enables

Led to

Industrial robotRecorded · 1961enables
Computer art exhibitionsRecorded · 1965enables
3D printingRecorded · 1984requires
Engineered 3D knittingRecorded · 2012enables
Robot workshops reproduce their toolchainForecast · ~2049enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.