What a plant is

A waterworks, a smelter, a substation, a refinery: machines, pipes and thousands of instruments, every reading under a code. What a plant is, and what Auge does with it.

Every instrument in a plant reports under a code. Auge works out what each one means, from the readings and the plant's own paperwork, and says so when it cannot.

A plant is any place that turns one thing into another, at scale.

A waterworks, a smelter, a substation, a refinery, a dairy. Each one is machines joined by pipes, cables and belts, and thousands of instruments measuring them every second. Every reading arrives under a code. What the code means, which machine it sits on and whether it can be trusted is written down somewhere else, if it is written down at all.

A refinery

A refinery

Tens of thousands of instruments on one site. Each one a reading, each reading a code.

Photo: Makubex1985, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
Where the meaning used to live

Where the meaning used to live

One dial per reading, its name written on the panel beside it. The dial became a tag in a database, and the label stayed behind.

Photo: ENERGY.GOV, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Where the readings end up

Where the readings end up

A modern control room. Every number on those screens arrived under a code someone once had to explain.

Photo: Zonk43, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
A waterworks

A waterworks

Filters and basins for a town's drinking water. Levels, flows, turbidity and chlorine, every few seconds.

Photo: USEPA Environmental-Protection-Agency, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Machines

Machines

Turbines, pumps, motors and fans: the things a reading belongs to, and the first question about every tag.

Photo: Tyler W. Hill, U.S. Marine Corps, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
A substation

A substation

Transformers and breakers moving power between grids. Currents, voltages, temperatures and gas pressures.

Photo: Novoklimov, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
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