I came here originally thinking this was going to be about stuff like how before CNC, machining lathes had series of levers and knobs that controlled gearing that would then cut different patterns into the part being machined.

I watched a great video on Adam Savage's YouTube channel [1] about his lathe and setting up the levers to make nuts and bolts on it. Thus mechanically programming.

1: https://youtu.be/98MCz9gQaiE?t=622