International Journal of Control

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James Clerk Maxwell, a precursor of system

identification and control science

Sergio Bittanti

To cite this article: Sergio Bittanti (2015): James Clerk Maxwell, a precursor of
system identification and control science, International Journal of Control, DOI:
10.1080/00207179.2015.1098783

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 International Journal of Control, 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207179.2015.1098783

James Clerk Maxwell, a precursor of system identification and control science

Sergio Bittantia,b,∗
a
Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy; b Istituto Lombardo – Accademia di
Scienze e Lettere (Academy of Science and Literature of Lombardy), Milan, Italy
(Received 18 September 2015; accepted 18 September 2015)

One hundred and fifty years ago James Clerk Maxwell published his celebrated paper ‘Dynamical theory of electromagnetic
field’, where the interaction between electricity and magnetism eventually found an explanation. However, Maxwell was
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also a precursor of model identification and control ideas. Indeed, with the paper ‘On Governors’ of 1869, he introduced
the concept of feedback control system; and moreover, with his essay on Saturn’s rings of 1856 he set the basic principle of
system identification. This paper is a tutorial exposition having the aim to enlighten these latter aspects of Maxwell’s work.

Keywords: James Clerk Maxwell; system identification; control science; history of systems and control

1. Introduction another, in rotation around the planet, a deduction which,

While still a student at Cambridge University, James Clerk over a century later, has been confirmed by modern space
Maxwell began to study Saturn’s rings (Maxwell, 1859), missions.
in order to discover the nature of their composition. His Some years later, he addressed another topic of major
research was not based on astronomical observations, but importance for systems and control, the notion of feedback
rather on pure mathematical modelling. Following the law control system. This was indeed the subject of his paper
of universal gravitation, Maxwell constructed various mod- ‘On Governors’ of 1968 (Maxwell, 1968). Underlying both
els which explained the rings’ nature, each deduced accord- contributions of 1856 and 1868 there is a common leit
ing to a given working hypothesis. For instance, one model motiv, the concept of stability.
was constructed on the hypothesis that the ring was a sin- In this paper, we will trace in a tutorial manner the his-
gle solid crown; another was based on the hypothesis that tory of these major contributions by Maxwell, with special
they was formed by a gaseous crown and so forth. Once emphasis on systems and control aspects. For his biography,
Maxwell had built the models, he set about to determine we refer to (Campbell & Garnett, 1882).
which one was correct by comparing the hypotheses with
the established laws. The models with characteristics that
2. The discovery of Neptune and the Adams
contradicted reality were discarded and with them the hy-
Prize of 1855
potheses upon which they were based. As his basic tool
for validation, Maxwell used the notion of stability, starting In the middle of the nineteenth century, John Adams, a
from the assumption that, since the rings had existed in that professor at Cambridge University, had devoted himself
configuration for millennia, the model obtained had nec- to study the orbit of Uranus, the last planet to have been
essarily to be stable; therefore, instable models were to be discovered at that time. Adams reached the conclusion that
rejected, along with their underlying hypotheses. This ap- the irregularities in its trajectory could not be explained
proach, which anticipated today’s techniques of model iden- except by the existence of another celestial body, an external
tification (Kalman, 1985a), is magisterially summarised by planet. The same conclusion was reached, independently,
the author as follows: . . . by rejecting every hypothesis by Urbain Le Verrier, who was working in Paris. Their
which leads to conclusions at variance with the facts, we calculations made it possible to estimate the position of the
may learn more on the nature of these distant bodies than ‘new’ celestial body, which was observed by Johan G. Galle,
the telescope can yet ascertain. As reported in his essay of with the telescope of the observatory of Berlin. It was 23
1856, Maxwell came to the conclusion that the rings had September 1846. The solar system was thus enriched with
to be composed of many solid elements, unattached to one a new planet, which was given the name Neptune.

∗
Email: [email protected]


C 2015 Taylor & Francis
 2 S. Bittanti

3. First studies of the solar system

Newton’s book ‘Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathe-
matica’, published in 1687, offered the world the methods
for understanding the laws that govern celestial phenom-
ena, which had always been the subject of investigation for
humans.
This led to a fervour of studies on the solar system. One
of the questions that was asked was what the effect could
be of a perturbation due to the intrusion of an external
body, such as a comet or an asteroid. By the way, events of
this kind are not so remote. In 1994, for example, the comet
Shoemaker–Levy crashed into Jupiter. More recently, on 19
October 2014, the comet Siding Spring just missed Mars,
passing 140,000 kilometres from the red planet (one-third
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of the distance between the Earth and the Moon), with heavy
consequences for its atmosphere. The Earth has also been
threatened by an event of this kind, when the comet Lexel
passed just 2 million kilometres from us. This occurred in
1770. The intrusion of an external body into the solar sys-
tem could have various effects on the paths of the planets,
such as (1) a temporary deformation, after which the planets
Figure 1. Portrait of James Clerk Maxwell. would return to their usual paths, (2) a permanent deforma-
tion and (3) the deflagration of the solar system. It was thus
a question regarding the stability of the solar system. Num-
bering among the pioneers of these studies of mathemat-
To celebrate the discovery, in 1848 Cambridge Univer- ical astronomy were great scientists such as Joseph-Louis
sity instituted an award called the Adams Prize, announcing Lagrange (1736–1813), Pierre Simon Laplace (1749–
it as follows: 1827), Simon-Denis Poisson (1781–1840) and Carl Jacobi
(1804–1851). Laplace in particular made two fundamental
The University has accepted a fund raised by several mem- contributions, the essay Exposition du système du monde
bers of St John’s College, for the purpose of founding a
(1796) (Laplace, 1796) and the monumental Mécanique
Prize to be called the ADAMS PRIZE, for the best essay
on some subject of Pure Mathematics, Astronomy, or other Céleste, a work in five volumes, the first of which was
branch of Natural Philosophy. published in 1799 (Laplace, 1798–1825). Laplace is also
remembered for his celebrated motto: what we know is not
The prize was biannual and was open to anyone who much; what we do not know is immense. The study of the
had been admitted – at any time – to Cambridge University, solar system was of such passionate interest in public opin-
therefore to all alumni past and present. ion that, in 1887, King Oscar of Sweden instituted a prize1
Herein we will be focusing on two Adams Prizes, that for studies on the three-body system (for example, Sun,
of 1855 and 1876. We shall begin with the first and discuss Earth and Moon). The task was to determine the paths of
the second later on. the system, knowing the initial conditions. The prize (one is
The announcement of 1855 ran as follows: tempted to say the ‘Oscar’) went to Henry Poincaré (1854–
1912), who demonstrated the impossibility of writing the
The Examiners give Notice, that the following is the subject solution explicitly, and also proved that two solutions asso-
for the prize to be adjudged in 1857: - The Motions of ciated with only slightly different initial conditions could
Saturn’s Rings. diverge in over the long term.

This topic was part of the great interest for the study
of the solar system by many scholars of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries (Simonyi, 2012). The prize went to a 4. The birth of the concept of dynamic system and
young student, James Clerk Maxwell (Figure 1), originally the rise of system theory
from Edinburgh, where he had been born on 13 June 1831, Since force determines acceleration, which is the variation
for the essay ‘The Stability of Saturn’s Rings’, the cover of of velocity, and, in turn, velocity is the variation of po-
which is reproduced in Figure 2. Note that the essay’s title sition, the famous law of universal gravitation translates
does not coincide exactly with the theme assigned by the mathematically into a dynamic link between force and po-
prize announcement for that year. sition (via acceleration), which today we call a differential
 International Journal of Control 3

equation. In the scientific world of the time, this type of

modelling was an important innovation, as previously schol-
ars had for the most part focused on algebraic equations.
In dynamical system, the effect depends not only upon the
cause but also on the initial state: the same cause may
have quite different effects. Later on, the same concept was
extended to other mathematical descriptions, such as dif-
ference equations, automata and so on.
While differential equations, and more in general, dy-
namical systems had to become a main research subject in
mathematics, they soon became the modelling tool in many
fields, far beyond celestial mechanics, something like a
flowing tide permeating all prescriptive sciences. An ex-
ample is electrical networks analysis, as developed in the
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fifties of past century, largely based on systems of linear

differential equations.
While the tide extended, it became apparent that some Figure 2. Frontispiece of Maxwell’s essay on Saturn’s rings.
concepts emerged as a common leit motiv notwithstand-
ing the different frameworks in which they were conceived.
This was especially clear from the mid of the twentieth the Moon, had already doubted whether this was correct;
century, when the diffusion of mathematical descriptions certain anomalies could not be explained if the force of
as means for the comprehension of the real world and the gravity was indeed transmitted at infinite speeds. For com-
design of engineering tools was accompanied by the recog- plete clarity on this fundamental question, we would have
nition that many problems could be treated in a unified to wait until the first decades of the twentieth century, when,
conceptual frame thanks to models. This led to the concept thanks to Henry Poincaré and Albert Einstein, the theory
of system and the rise of system theory (Kalman, 1985b; of relativity was developed. It then became clear that the
Willems, 1991). force of gravity did not spread from one body to another
An emblematic story is related to the concept of stabil- instantaneously, but at a finite speed, namely that of light.
ity. As we have seen, studies on the stability of the solar Thus, if in this moment the sun stopped its activity, the force
system had the aim of establishing the effect of a disturbance of gravity to which the Earth is subject would continue to
produced by a comet of by another celestial body travelling be present for another eight minutes, the time it takes for
through the system. It is a very interesting problem, which light to reach us. This observation, although of fundamen-
understandably drew the interest of not only scholars but tal importance, does not of course invalidate Newton’s Law,
also the public at large. The concept of stability also how- which, for bodies moving at speeds far from that of light,
ever has a general value that goes beyond the solar system, has brought about great results for humanity. This is why in
and indeed can be applied to any dynamic system. This recent years, we tend to speak of models rather than laws.
notion plays a particularly crucial role in control systems. This observation reminds us what statistician George
In order for such systems to work properly, the effect of un- Box (1919–2013) used to say: all models are wrong, but
foreseen perturbations (disturbances) must be neutralised, some are useful.
and this can happen only if the system is stable. The credit
for the general definition of stability, universally accepted
today, goes to Alexander M. Lyapunov (1857–1918), who 5. Maxwell’s essay on the rings of Saturn
gave it for the first time in his doctoral thesis, defended at Now we come to the essay on Saturn’s rings. We shall first
the University of St. Petersburg in 1884. Nevertheless, the analyse the method of study adopted and then go on to
notion of stability had already appeared and been put to describe the organisation of the contribution itself.
use in scientific literature some decades before. It had for In his essay, Maxwell makes various conjectures on the
instance played a particularly important role in the works composition of the rings and maps out the corresponding
of Maxwell of interest in this article. mathematical model for each. The model obtained is then
validated by comparing its salient features with ‘the facts’,
that is to say known reality. If the model contradicts reality,
4.1. Observation (of laws and models) the underlying hypothesis is rejected. If it is not contradic-
The law of gravitation cites the force of attraction be- tory then the conjecture is not falsified and could be correct.
tween two bodies. As it is normally stated, it is implied The essay contains a splendid passage in which Maxwell
that the force is one that is ‘exerted from afar’, instanta- masterfully sums up his approach: . . . by rejecting every
neously. Laplace, during his studies on the movement of hypothesis which leads to conclusions at variance with the
 4 S. Bittanti

facts, we may learn more on the nature of these distant form; (3) the various satellites of the ring are all identical
bodies than the telescope can yet ascertain. to one another and (4) the transversal dimension is negli-
Note that this line of thinking is typical of the disci- gible. The family of model is parameterised in the number
pline that today is known as model identification and data of satellites, indicated by the letter μ. Maxwell calculated
analysis, whose goal is to provide a valid mathematical that in order for the movement to be stable the mass of
description of a given system from experimental data, for Saturn must be sufficiently high in relation to that of the
the purpose of gathering knowledge, making predictions or ring: S > 0.4352μ2 R, where R and S indicate the mass
control. One starts by postulating a group of models, from of the ring and mass of Saturn, respectively. As Maxwell
which the ‘best model’ is chosen, which is normally the himself observes, if the number of satellites were so high as
one that provides predictions that most closely align with to violate this condition, the movement would be unstable
the experimental observations. Then the result obtained is and would lead to destructive oscillations that would cause
validated: if the model is not satisfying, for example be- the satellites collide and therefore – presumably – join to-
cause one of its features is not in line with the experimental gether in a single body, reducing the number of satellites to
evidence, one moves on to another group of models and around the maximum number that Saturn can sustain (or,
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begins the procedure anew. as the author puts it, keep in discipline). When to the con-
And herein lies Maxwell’s winning idea: the validation trary if there were a disparity, the satellites would be unable
of a given model is to be done by means of the notion to remain at an appropriate distance from Saturn’s centre
of stability: since the rings have been around since time of gravity, but, given the planet’s preponderant mass, they
immemorial, a valid model must be a stable model. If it avoid interfering with one another.
does not meet this criterion it is to be rejected, along with Maxwell used a not insignificant number of symbols in
the hypothesis on which it is based. the paper, introducing them discursively, one by one as they
The essay on Saturn’s rings contains 68 pages, followed come up, which makes the reading somewhat difficult. The
by an appendix and by a final table with the figures, 13 in study does however conclude with a useful summary of the
total. The bibliographic references are cited directly in the first and second parts, a concise summing up of the cases
text when they come up. considered and the results obtained.
The work is divided into two parts. The first (pages 6–
17) bears the title On the Motion of a Rigid Body of Any
Form about a Sphere. Here the model is based on the hy-
pothesis that the rings are made up of a single rigid block.
As Maxwell himself points out in the general introduction 6. Maxwell’s contribution to the study of control
(pages 1–5), this hypothesis had already been proposed by systems
Pierre Simon Laplace in the Mécanique Céleste, namely Consider now another Maxwell’s important contribution,
in the sixth chapter of the third volume and in the third the article published in 1868 in the Proceedings of the
chapter of the fifth volume. Maxwell comments as follows: Royal Society, entitled simply On Governors. With the goal
[Laplace] proves most distinctly that a solid uniform ring of imposing a determined behaviour onto a given system,
cannot revolve around a central body in a permanent man- recourse can be made to specially designed device that,
ner, for the slightest displacement of the centre of the ring connected to the system itself, ensures that said system
from the centre of the planet would originate a motion which functions properly. In the article, this device is called a
would never be checked, and would inevitably precipitate governor; today we use the term controller.
the ring upon the planet. . . We may draw the conclusion The author considers several operating systems in
more formally as follows: if the rings were solid and uni- different physical realities, in particular the well-known
form, their motion would be unstable, and they would be centrifugal governor. Conceived for the control of wind-
destroyed. But they are not destroyed, and their motion is mills and then adapted to the problem of the control of the
stable; therefore they are either not uniform or not solid. speed in steam engines, this device contains in itself the
The second part of the essay, entitled On the Motion basic principle of feedback enabling the regulation of the
of a Ring, the Parts of Which Are Not Rigidly Connected, driveshaft speed without the need for any human operator.
studies the case of multiple elements that are not rigidly As such, it has become something of an icon and has been
connected, as though the ring was made up of various in- reproduced on the covers of many books.
dependent satellites. Naturally, in this case the modelling In his 1868 article, in addition to the centrifugal gov-
is more complex because it is necessary to take into con- ernor, Maxwell discusses several other regulation systems,
sideration, in addition to the force of attraction exercised belonging to a wide range of different fields. It is worth not-
by Saturn and the centrifugal force, also the mutual ef- ing that all the devices discussed are described with linear
fect of one satellite on the others. The study is conducted dynamic systems, albeit with varying degrees of complex-
based on several simplifying hypotheses: (1) the trajectory ity. What they all have in common is being feedback sys-
of each satellite is circular; (2) their speed of rotation is uni- tems, in addition to the common concept of the governor:
 International Journal of Control 5

A governor is a part of a machine by means of which the There is of course an explicit formula to solve equa-
velocity of the machine [. . .] is kept nearly uniform, not with tion of the second degree. But also third-degree equations
standing variations in the driving power or the resistance. admit solutions in a closed form. The history of this lat-
Most governors depend on the centrifugal force of a piece
connected with a shaft of the machine. When the velocity ter formula is quite curious. We owe its discovery to two
increases, this force increases, and either increases the great Italian mathematicians, Niccolò Fontana of Brescia,
pressure of the piece against a surface or moves the piece, nicknamed Tartaglia (1499–1557), and Scipione del Ferro
and so acts on a break or a valve. of Bologna (1465–1526), who reached it independently of
one another. Neither Tartaglia nor del Ferro, however, went
Further on: public with the formula. Tartaglia revealed it in strict confi-
dence to Gerolamo Cardano (1501–1576); while del Ferro
I propose [. . .] to direct the attention of engineers and confided it to his son-in-law Annibale della Nave, who in
mathematicians to the dynamical theory of such governors. turn showed it to Cardano during one of the latter’s visits to
It will be seen that the motion of a machine with its gov-
ernor consists in general of a uniform motion, combined Bologna. The formula was finally published in Cardano’s
with a disturbance which may be expressed as the sum of book Ars Magna, universally acclaimed as the greatest sci-
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several component motion. These components may be of entific treatise of the Renaissance. In the book, Cardano
four different kinds: admits that he is not the author of the formula and credits
The disturbance may continually increase it to Tartaglia and del Ferro. Nonetheless, Tartaglia did not
It may continually diminish take it well, and the episode led to a feud between the two
It may be an oscillation of continually increasing amplitude that would last for years.
It may be an oscillating continually decreasing amplitude With regards to solving algebraic equations, Paolo
The first and the third cases are evidently inconsistent with Ruffini (1765–1822) and Niels H. Abel (1802–1829)
the stability of the motion, and the second and fourth alone proved that, from the fifth degree on, there is no explicit
are admissible in a good governor. This condition is math- formula.
ematically equivalent to the condition that all the possible Following the above considerations, it would thus seem
roots, and all the possible parts, of the impossible roots of
a certain equation shall be negative. I have not been able
that the problem of analysing stability is difficult indeed,
completely to determine these conditions for equation of a especially for complex systems, of a high degree. How-
higher degree than the third; but I hope that the subject will ever, upon further reflection it turns out the analysis of
obtain the attention of mathematicians. stability does not require the explicit solution of the char-
acteristic equation, indeed it requires a great deal less:
In final analysis, the study of stability leads to the prob- establishing that all the solutions have a real negative
lem of resolving a polynomial equation with real coeffi- part.
cients, what today is known as a characteristic equation. Maxwell unsuccessfully tried to obtain a necessary and
The basic result, well known to all control students around sufficient condition, as he writes in the final passage of the
the world, is that a linear system is stable if all of the so- article cited above.
lutions of its characteristic equation have a negative real
part. One of the Maxwell’s merits was to have understood
that so-called impossible solutions, that is to say complex 8. The 1877 Adams Prize and the Routh Criterion
solutions, are equally important as real solution and also Following the Maxwell’s suggestion at the end of his 1868
must be analysed in the study of stability. Note also that, article, an Adams Prize was announced for someone who
according to the particular system under consideration, the could establish a criterion for stability. The prize, awarded
characteristic equation reached by the author could have in 1877, went to Edward J. Routh (1831–1907) for his es-
a different degree. Maxwell concludes by admitting that say A Treatise in the Stability of a Given State of Motion
he had been unable to reach a condition of stability for (Routh, 1875). Routh had worked out a (necessary and
polynomials with a degree above three. sufficient) condition thanks to which it was possible to es-
For more information on the historical development of tablish whether all of the solutions of an algebraic equation
control science we refer the reader to Åström and Kumar had a negative real part, without the need to find the solu-
(2014), Bittanti (2008) and Willems (1991). tions of the equation itself. The condition only required the
construction of a table whose elements could be obtained
with elementary calculations based on the coefficients of
the initial polynomial. Thus the famous Routh Criterion2
7. Solving an algebraic equation – a long story made was born, which is still taught today in every course on
short control the world over.
We have thus come to a celebrated problem, a challenge One might say that Maxwell and Routh were destined
that has vexed many great minds: the solution to algebraic to cross paths. Both were born in 1831 and studied at Cam-
equations of various degrees. bridge in the same period. At the time, students at that
 6 S. Bittanti

university had to undergo a very selective test, a sort of Disclosure statement

‘competition of the best of the best’, called the Mathemati- No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
cal Tripos, which was held at the end of the first three years
of study. The Tripos consisted of a series of complex math-
ematical tests, which could take candidates several days Notes
of work to complete. The etymology of the term Tripos is 1. King Oscar established the prize to celebrate his 60th birth-
day. For the same occasion, together with Michel Gevers,
unclear; it may have to do with the word tripod, referring the author of this footnote had the idea to organise a special
to the three-legged stool which students used during their issue of the European Journal of Control, of which he was
oral exams. The top ranking students in the competition the editor-in-chief from 2003 to 2013, entirely devoted to the
were placed on a list known as the Wrangler List. This was dawn and evolution of control science (Bittanti & Gevers,
a very desirable distinction, and a prestigious calling card 2007).
2. In 1894, Adolf Hurwitz (1859–1916), a mathematician work-
for future occupation (and not necessarily in only academic ing in the ETH Zurich University, worked out a necessary
or even scientific fields, but also for example to become a and sufficient condition that was different but equivalent
judge). The ranking obtained in these tests were indicated to Routh’s. Thus the criterion is also known as the Routh–
Downloaded by [Nanyang Technological University] at 18:00 11 November 2015

with an abbreviation, for instance 7W 1893 indicated sev- Hurwitz Criterion.

enth place in the Tripos of 1893, while 12W 1905 referred
to 12th place in 1905 (the scores of Bertrand Russell and
References
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second (1W 1854 e 2W 1854). Routh took first place and Bittanti, S., & Gevers, M. (Eds.). (2007). On the dawn and de-
Maxwell second. velopment of control science in the XX century. Special Issue
They both were also Adams Prize winners; as we have of the European Journal of Control, Vol. 13, no. 1. Paris:
seen Maxwell won for his essay on Saturn’s rings, and, Lavoisier. (contributions by K.J. Åström, R. Brockett, H.F.
about 20 years later, Routh was awarded for his study on Chen, D. Cheng, A. Fossard, G. Guardabassi, A.B. Kurzhan-
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(An essay which obtained the Adams prize for the year 1875,
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Acknowledgements CRC Press.
The author wishes to acknowledge the National Research Council Willems, J.C. (1991). Dynamical systems, controllability, and
of Italy (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – CNR) and the observability: A post-modern point of view. In A.C. An-
Politecnico di Milano for their support to the development of toulas (Ed.), Mathematical system theory (pp. 17–40). Berlin:
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