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'A Superb Explanatory Device': the MONIAC, an Early Hydraulic Analog Computer

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'A Superb Explanatory Device': the MONIAC, an Early Hydraulic Analog Computer ‘A superb explanatory device’ The MONIAC, an early hydraulic analog computer Anna Corkhill Since 1953, the University of when it was rediscovered, partially rubber tubing and powered by a Melbourne has owned a rare restored and given a position in a mechanical pump. (In the prototype, machine: a hydraulic analog simple display case on level 1 of the the pump’s motor was recycled from computer capable of explaining the Economics and Commerce Building. a World War II Lancaster bomber, economy and performing complex The machine has recently been but the university’s MONIAC economic calculations. It is generally moved to the entrance of the new was commercially made.) It is known as the MONIAC (which Giblin Eunson Business, Economics approximately two metres high and stands for ‘MOnetary National and Education Library in the ICT one metre wide, with a metal backing Income Analog Computer’), Building, 111 Barry Street. enclosing the machine’s pump and though it has also been called Though a reasonably accurate connecting tubing. The machine has the ‘Financephalograph’, the computational device, the MONIAC’s three main water tanks, representing ‘National Income Monetary Flow key aim was to demonstrate taxes and government spending, Demonstrator’ and simply the Keynesian economic models in a savings and investment, and import– ‘Phillips Machine’, after its inventor, clear, visual way. As a pedagogical aid, export. The ‘active balances’ tank at Bill Phillips. The machine, one of it used coloured water to represent the bottom represents the total stock approximately 12 ever created, was money flowing through the economy, of currency and bank credit in the purchased by the Department of and showed the relationships between economy at any given time. When Economics in 1953, at the request various aspects of the economy in operation, water was injected into of Professor Wilfred Prest, who had such as income, taxes, government the ‘active balances’ tank, pumped up seen a MONIAC demonstration on spending and investment. It could to the top of the machine as income, a study tour of the United Kingdom be calibrated to represent different and allowed to flow downwards in 1952–53. Prest decided that national economies, and recorded the as expenditure (separated into funds available from the unoccupied output of its calculations on graph consumption spending and domestic Ritchie Chair in Economics would paper at the top of the machine, spending), with controlled amounts be most appropriately spent on this with pens powered by a 1 RPM of water being siphoned off to enter fascinating new piece of technology. (revolutions per minute) motor. the tanks representing taxes and It arrived in Melbourne in 1954, Unlike most computers, which hide government spending, savings and cost £995 (£1,300 including freight) their mechanics behind a plastic or investment, and import–export. and was installed in the south- metal casing, the workings of the The flow was modified by leakages west corner of the Old Commerce MONIAC are on display, because its (savings, taxes and imports) and Building. In 1963 the MONIAC was very purpose was to simplify complex injections (investment, government damaged while in transit to the new economic equations and demonstrate expenditure and export receipts). Economics and Commerce Building their results in a dynamic, colourful Nine simultaneous economic (now Arts West), after which it was show. equations (adjustable ‘functions’) placed in a basement storage area. The MONIAC comprises a series were run to produce the flow of It remained hidden until the 1990s, of clear acrylic tanks connected by the MONIAC demonstrations. 24 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 10, June 2012 MONIAC machine (Monetary National Income Analog Computer), designed by A.W.H. Phillips, manufactured by Air Trainers Ltd, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, c. 1953, metal, rubber, acrylic, and mixed media, height approx. 2 metres. Purchased 1953, Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Commerce, University of Melbourne Each equation regulated a set of macro-economic relationships: income and taxation, income and government expenditure, income and consumption, interest rates and investment, domestic expenditure and imports, domestic expenditure and exports, exchange rates and imports, and exchange rates and exports.1 These adjustable functions were represented by acrylic schedules clipped onto the machine. The two output graphs, one on each side of the machine, recorded (at the rate of two minutes per year) the resulting gross national product and the effect of the variables on the rate of interest and on imports and exports.2 The machine’s functions and the water levels in each section were controlled by delicate mechanical sensors consisting of vaned water wheels.3 Each function was linked mechanically by valves and floats. The national economy as demonstrated by the machine could be ‘shocked’, that is, affected by a sudden change such as an altered tax rate or change in investment spending. If no shocks were introduced, the income flow would settle at an equilibrium where injections were set equal to leaks. Cochineal dye was used to colour the water a deep crimson, making it more visually distinctive and easier to ‘read’. Anna Corkhill, ‘A superb explanatory device’ 25 Frederick Roland Emett, The Financephalograph Position, published in Punch, 15 April 1953. Reproduced with permission from Punch Ltd At the University of Melbourne, a secret radio and an immersion Newlyn persuaded the head of the MONIAC was mostly used to element (run from camp lighting) department at Leeds to advance demonstrate macro-economic theory to make hot drinks. When the £100 towards building the prototype. to honours classes and on open war ended, Phillips was awarded a Newlyn helped as a craftsman’s days to entice prospective students. New Zealand forces scholarship to mate—sanding and gluing together Unfortunately, it was prone to leak if study abroad and chose the LSE, pieces of acrylic and supplementing its demonstrator failed to adequately where he majored in sociology. He Phillips’ economic knowledge.6 The control the economy, and many was not an excellent student of finished machine was demonstrated demonstrations ended suddenly sociology, a fact that he attributed on 29 November 1949 before a due to flooded tutorial rooms. It to his heavy cigarette-smoking distinguished audience at Professor was described at the time as having habit, which prevented him from Robbins’ seminar. In the process ‘the potentialities of a recalcitrant concentrating for the long stretches of demonstrating the MONIAC student’.4 of time required for examinations. and its functions, Phillips delivered The MONIAC was invented He did, however, take some subjects a comprehensive lecture on the and constructed by economist Alban in economics, which interested him economic theories of Keynes and William Housego (‘Bill’) Phillips much more than sociology; even so, Robertson (in his heavy New (1914–1975), in consultation with he was just a ‘pass’ student. Zealand accent), whilst pacing Walter Newlyn and James Meade In 1949 Phillips conceived an back and forth, chain-smoking. from Leeds University and the idea for a machine to demonstrate The demonstration was a rousing London School of Economics (LSE). and perform calculations ‘on the success and greatly impressed the Phillips was born in New Zealand workings of the macro-economy— audience, many of whom had come and grew up on a dairy farm. He the broad relationships between expecting a fiasco.7 Over the next few moved to Australia shortly after income, employment, interest rates years, MONIACs were purchased finishing school and worked in and other economic variables’.5 by the universities of Manchester, various jobs including as a crocodile He wanted a straightforward, Oxford and Cambridge, as well hunter and cinema manager, before visual method of demonstrating as Roosevelt College at Harvard. settling in England and studying economic theories and, in particular, Non-university buyers included Ford electrical engineering. Shortly after making clear the complexities of Motors and the Reserve Bank of the outbreak of World War II he multiple simultaneous equations. Guatemala. In August 1950, Phillips joined the Royal Air Force and was Phillips discussed the idea with published an article in the journal posted to Singapore, escaping to Walter Newlyn, a junior academic Economica, which greatly increased Java when Singapore was captured at Leeds University who had his recognition as an economist and by Japan. He became a prisoner of studied with Phillips at the LSE, creator of the MONIAC.8 He was war in Java when it too was captured and proceeded to build a prototype appointed as assistant lecturer at the by Japanese forces. He became well (with Newlyn’s assistance) over one LSE in October 1950, his publication known at the camp for building summer in a garage in Croydon. and invention compensating for his 26 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 10, June 2012 poor marks. He became a full lecturer in 1951, finished his PhD thesis, ‘Dynamic models in economics’, in 1953, became a reader in 1954 and Tooke Professor of Economic Science and Statistics in 1958. That year Phillips also visited the University of Melbourne on a study-leave tour.9 During the early 1950s Phillips’ machine received some attention in the press, with an article published in the American magazine Fortune in 1952 and a satirical article, ‘The Financephalograph position’, and computers quickly surpassed the at university level. He continued to cartoon (illustrated right) appearing range, detail and accuracy of the carry out maintenance on the two in British Punch in 1953. The MONIAC. But the MONIAC was MONIACs owned by the LSE, Fortune article was somewhat of an unique in its visual aspect and as but MONIACs abroad, such as the advertorial, indicating that a machine a teaching aid, despite its limited one in Melbourne, fell more quickly could be purchased for US$4,300 and scope.
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