View source for Phillips Machine

{{short description|Fluidic analogue computer simulating the UK economy}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=December 2023}}
{{redir|MONIAC||Moniac (disambiguation)}}
[[file:MONIAC computer.jpg|thumb|Phillips Machine in the Science Museum, London]]

The '''Phillips Machine''', also known as the '''MONIAC''' ('''Monetary National Income Analogue Computer'''), '''Phillips Hydraulic Computer''' and the '''Financephalograph''', is an [[analogue computer]] which uses [[fluidics|fluidic logic]] to model the workings of an economy. The name "MONIAC" is suggested by associating [[money]] and [[ENIAC]], an early electronic [[digital computer]].

It was created in 1949 by the [[New Zealand]] economist [[William Phillips (economist)|Bill Phillips]] to model the national economic processes of the [[United Kingdom]], while Phillips was a student at the [[London School of Economics]] (LSE). While designed as a teaching tool, it was discovered to be quite accurate, and thus an effective economic simulator.

At least twelve machines were built, donated to or purchased by various organisations around the world. {{as of|2023}}, several are in working order.

== History ==

Phillips scrounged materials to create his prototype computer, including bits and pieces of war surplus parts from old [[Lancaster bomber]]s.<ref name=cambridge>{{cite web|title = Trickle-down economics: Phillips Machine shows how macroeconomy flows | url = https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/faculty-news/2022/trickle-down-economics-phillips-machine-shows-how-macroeconomy-flows | date = 22 June 2022 | access-date=21 April 2024 | publisher=[[University of Cambridge]]}}</ref> The first MONIAC was created in his landlady's garage in [[Croydon]] at a cost of [[pound sterling|£]]400 ({{Inflation|UK|400|1949|fmt=eq|r=-3|cursign=£}}).

According to the Anna Corkhill: <blockquote> Phillips discussed the idea with Walter Newlyn, a junior academic at Leeds University who had studied with Phillips at the LSE, and proceeded to build a prototype (with Newlyn’s assistance) over one summer in a garage in Croydon. Newlyn persuaded the head of department at Leeds to advance
£100 towards building the prototype. Newlyn helped as a craftsman’s mate—sanding and gluing together pieces of acrylic and supplementing Phillips’ economic knowledge.<ref>Anna Corkhill, 'A superb explanatory device: The MONIAC, an early hydraulic analog computer', ''University of Melbourne Collections'', issue 10, June 2012, p.26</ref></blockquote>

Phillips first demonstrated the machine to leading economists at the [[London School of Economics]] (LSE), of which Phillips was a student, in 1949. It was very well received and Phillips was soon offered a teaching position at the LSE.

The machine had been designed as a teaching aid but was also discovered to be an effective economic simulator.<ref>{{cite journal |first=C. |last=Bissell |title=Historical perspectives — The Moniac A Hydromechanical Analog Computer of the 1950s |journal=IEEE Control Systems Magazine |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=69–74 |date=February 2007 |doi=10.1109/MCS.2007.284511 |s2cid=37510407 |url=http://oro.open.ac.uk/7942/1/04064850.pdf}}</ref> When the machine was created, electronic digital computers that could run complex economic simulations were unavailable. In 1949, the few computers in existence were restricted to government and military use and their lack of adequate visual displays made them unable to illustrate the operation of complex models. Observing the machine in operation made it much easier for students to understand the interrelated processes of a national economy. The range of organisations that acquired a machine showed that it was used in both capacities.{{or|date=December 2023}}

== Design ==
[[file:MONIACdashboard.jpg|thumb|The machine's dashboard]]

The machine is approximately {{convert|2|m|abbr=on}} high, {{convert|1.2|m|abbr=on}} wide and almost {{convert|1|m|abbr=on}} deep, and consisted of a series of transparent plastic tanks and pipes which were fastened to a wooden board. Each tank represented some aspect of the UK national [[economy]] and the flow of money around the economy was illustrated by coloured water. At the top of the board was a large tank called the treasury. Water (representing money) flowed from the treasury to other tanks representing the various ways in which a country could spend its money. For example, there were tanks for health and education. To increase spending on health care a tap could be opened to drain water from the treasury to the tank which represented health spending. Water then ran further down the model to other tanks, representing other interactions in the economy. Water could be pumped back to the treasury from some of the tanks to represent [[tax]]ation. Changes in tax rates were modeled by increasing or decreasing pumping speeds.

[[Saving (money)|Savings]] reduce the funds available to consumers and [[investment]] income increases those funds.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}} The machine showed it by draining water (savings) from the expenditure stream and by injecting water (investment income) into that stream. When the savings flow exceeds the investment flow, the level of water in the savings and investment tank (the surplus-balances tank) would rise to reflect the accumulated balance. When the investment flow exceeds the savings flow for any length of time, the surplus-balances tank would run dry. Import and export were represented by water draining from the model and by additional water being poured into the model.

The flow of the water was automatically controlled through a series of floats, counterweights, electrodes, and cords. When the level of water reached a certain level in a tank, pumps and drains would be activated. To their surprise, Phillips and his associate Walter Newlyn found that the machine could be calibrated to an accuracy of 2%.

The flow of water between the tanks was determined by economic principles and the settings for various parameters. Different economic parameters, such as tax rates and investment rates, could be entered by setting the valves which controlled the flow of water about the computer.  Users could experiment with different settings and note their effects. The machine's ability to model the subtle interaction of a number of variables made it a powerful tool for its time.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} When a set of parameters resulted in a viable economy the model would stabilise and the results could be read from scales. The output from the computer could also be sent to a rudimentary [[plotter]].

== Locations ==
[[File:Phillips and MONIAC LSE.jpg|thumb|Phillips with his machine (circa 1958-67)]]

It is thought that twelve to fourteen machines were built:

* The prototype was given to the Economics Department at the [[University of Leeds]], where it is on exhibition in the reception of the university's Business School. Copies went to three other British universities.
* Other computers went to the [[Harvard Business School]]<ref name="Moniac Machine">{{cite web |title=Moniac Machine |url=https://nzier.org.nz/about/monia-machine/ |website=New Zealand Institute of Economic Research |access-date=30 May 2019}}</ref> and [[Roosevelt University|Roosevelt College]] in the United States and [[Melbourne University]] in Australia. The [[Ford Motor Company]] and the Central Bank of [[Guatemala]] are believed to have bought machines.{{cn|date=December 2023}}
* A machine owned by [[Istanbul University]] is located in the Faculty Of Economics and is available for inspection.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Introducing the Moniac: Its Historical Process in the Istanbul University Faculty of Economics | first1=Nazan |last1=Susam| first2=Nurtaç |last2=Yıldırım |first3=Hakan |last3=Bektaş | journal = İstanbul İktisat Dergisi - Istanbul Journal of Economics | doi=10.26650/ISTJECON2021-944190 | volume=71 | issue=1 | pages=1–19 | year=2021| doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.istanbul.edu.tr/tr/haber/moniac-milli-gelir-hesaplama-makinesi-ve-simulasyonu-tanitim-toplantisi-gercekle-50006E00440077004F004A00710066006300390041003100 | title = MONIAC Milli Gelir Hesaplama Makinesi ve Simülasyonu Tanıtım Toplantısı Gerçekleştirildi | language=tr | access-date=21 April 2024 | date=3 October 2018}}</ref>
* A machine from the LSE was given to the [[Science Museum (London)|Science Museum]] in London and, after conservation, was placed on public display in the museum's mathematics galleries.<ref>{{cite web |first=Bill |last=Phillips |author2=White Ellerton Limited |title=Phillip's Economic Computer |year=1949 |publisher=Science Museum Group Collection |url=http://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co64127/phillips-economic-computer-analog-computer}}</ref>
* A machine owned by the LSE was donated to the [[New Zealand Institute of Economic Research]] in [[Wellington, New Zealand]]. This machine formed part of the New Zealand Exhibition at the [[Venice Biennale]] in 2003. The machine was set to model the New Zealand economy. In 2007 this machine was restored and placed on permanent display in the [[Reserve Bank of New Zealand]] Museum.<ref name="rbnz">{{cite web |url=http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/research_and_publications/fact_sheets_and_guides/3290698.pdf |title=A. W. H.(Bill) Phillips, MBE and the MONIAC |access-date=28 November 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130812141826/http://rbnz.govt.nz/research_and_publications/fact_sheets_and_guides/3290698.pdf |archive-date=12 August 2013 |df=dmy }}</ref>
* A working machine is at the Faculty of Economics at [[Cambridge University]] in the [[United Kingdom]].  This machine was restored by Allan McRobie of the [[Cambridge University Engineering Department]], who holds an annual demonstration to students.<ref name=cambridge />
* A replica of the machine at the [[Bank of Guatemala|central bank of Guatemala]] was created for a 2005-6 exhibition entitled "Tropical Economies" at the Wattis Institute of the [[California College of the Arts]] in [[San Francisco]].<ref name="wattis">{{cite web |url=http://www.kunstaspekte.de/index.php?tid=14632&action=termin |title=Michael Stevenson: Tropical Economies |access-date=28 November 2012}}</ref>
* The machine at The University of Melbourne, Australia, is on permanent display in the lobby of the Giblin Eunson Library (Ground Floor, Business and Economics Building, 111 Barry st, Carlton, Melbourne).  The faculty has sought those interested in restoring the machine.
* [[Erasmus University Rotterdam|Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR)]] has owned a machine since 1953. It was a gift from the City of Rotterdam for EUR's 40th anniversary. It is located in the THEIL building.
* [[Clausthal University of Technology]] in the faculty of economic sciences.
* [[Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam]] had a machine built in 1951 by their instrument makers, modeled after the original. It was called the ECOCIRC (Economic Flow Circulator Demonstrator). It is located on the 8th floor of the Main Building.<ref name="VU heritage">{{cite web |url=https://issuu.com/vuuniversity/docs/vu_objects_and_their_stories/s/13242198 |title=MThe Economic Flow Circulator Demonstrator |access-date=22 January 2023}}</ref>

== Popular culture ==

The [[Terry Pratchett]] novel ''[[Making Money]]'' contains a similar device as a major plot point. However, after the device is fully perfected, it [[Sympathetic magic|magically becomes directly coupled]] to the economy it was intended to simulate, with the result that the machine cannot then be adjusted without causing a change in the actual economy (in parodic resemblance to [[Goodhart's law]]).{{syn|date=December 2023}}

Economist [[Kate Raworth]]'s book [[Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist|Donut Economics]] critiques the use of an electric pump as the power source, claiming that because its power consumption was not considered, it left out an important component out of the economic model it was portraying: <ref>"Donut Economics" by Katie Raworth |url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=9euWCwAAQBAJ </ref><ref name="Raworth_Doughnut_2017">{{Cite book |last=Raworth |first=Kate |title=A Safe and Just Space for Humanity |date=30 March 2024 |publisher=[[Random House]] |isbn=978-1847941374 |location=London |pages=309 |oclc=1006404349 |author-link=Kate Raworth}}</ref> 
<blockquote>"This is where Bill Phillips’s MONIAC machine was fundamentally flawed. While brilliantly demonstrating the economy’s circular flow of income, it completely overlooked its throughflow of energy. To make his hydraulic computer start up, Phillips had to flip a switch on the back of it to turn on its electric pump. Like any real economy it relied upon an external source of energy to make it run, but neither Phillips nor his contemporaries spotted that the machine’s power source was a critical part of what made the model work. That lesson from the MONIAC applies to all of macroeconomics: the role of energy deserves a far more prominent place in economic theories that hope to explain what drives economic activity."</blockquote>

== See also ==

* [[Hydraulic macroeconomics]]
* [[Phillips curve]]
* [[Water integrator]]

== References ==

{{refs}}

== Further reading ==

* "The League of Gentlemen". Third Episode of ''[[Pandora's Box (British TV series)|Pandora's Box]]'', a documentary produced by Adam Curtis
* {{Citation |first=Mike |last=Hally |title=Electronic Brains: Stories from the Dawn of the Computer Age |publisher=Joseph Henry Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-309-09630-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/electronicbrains00hall/page/187 187–205] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/electronicbrains00hall/page/187 }}.

== External links ==
{{external links|date=December 2023}}
{{commonscat}}

* {{Cite web
  |title=How a mind-boggling device changed economic history
  |author=Tim Harford
  |author-link=Tim Harford
  |date=6 September 2024
  |website=[[Financial Times]]
  |url=https://www.ft.com/content/6f28a534-7eae-4762-9ab9-abef0ff00525?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-gb
}}
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/electronicbrains.shtml BBC Radio Four programme 'Water on the brain'.]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110723113213/http://nzier.org.nz/about-nzier/moniac-machine NZIER's Moniac Machine]
* [http://www.inc.com/magazine/19950915/2624.html When Money Flowed Like Water]
* [http://hjalli.com/2003/11/13/money-flows-bill-phillips-financephalograph/ Money Flows: Bill Phillips' Financephalograph]
* [http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/enginuity/issue12/article2.html enginuity article]
* {{cite journal |last=Swade |first=Doron |title=The Phillips Economic Computer |journal=Resurrection: The Bulletin of the Computer Conservation Society |issue=12 |date=Summer 1995 |url=http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/CCS/res/res12.htm#e}}
* {{cite news |url=http://www.fulltable.com/vts/f/fortune/mnc.htm |newspaper=Fortune |date=March 1952 |title=The Moniac: Economics in thirty fascinating minutes |pages=100–1}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070616085159/http://technology.open.ac.uk/tel/people/bissell/bletchley_paper.pdf A great disappearing act: the electronic analogue computer]
* [http://archives.lse.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=PHILLIPS Catalogue of the AWH Phillips papers] at the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070618035533/http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/Default.htm Archives Division] of the [[London School of Economics]].
* {{cite journal |last1=Ng |first1=Tim |last2=Wright |first2=Matthew |title=Introducing the MONIAC: an early and innovative economic model |journal=Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin |volume=70 |issue=4 |date=December 2007 |url=http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/research/bulletin/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080220020711/http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/research/bulletin/ |archive-date=20 February 2008}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkNaZJmii28 Video of the Phillips Machine in operation]  Allan McRobie demonstrates the Phillips Machine at Cambridge University and performs calculations. (A lecture given in 2010).
* {{cite web |first=Allan |last=McRobie |url=http://ideas.repec.org/p/trn/utwpas/1102.html |title=Business Cycles in the Phillips Machine |year=2011 |series=ASSRU Discussion Papers |volume=1102 }} Contains detailed diagrams of the Machine workings
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090821082352/http://mediaplayer.group.cam.ac.uk/component/option,com_mediadb/task,view/idstr,CU-AllanMcRobie-Phillips2004/Itemid,55 The Phillips Machine] Article includes links to videos of the machine in operation.
* {{cite news |url=http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/guest-column-like-water-for-money/ |title=Like Water for Money |author-link=Steven Strogatz |first=Steven |last=Strogatz |newspaper=New York Times |date=2009-06-02}}
* [http://archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=IMAGELIBRARY%2f6 LSE Photo of Phillips with the machine]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CugelWZPLiI&t=21s Bill Phillips Lecture] by [[Alan Bollard]], 16 July 2008
* [https://cloud.anylogic.com/model/6650b7c7-c32c-4828-9820-8550dcbecfa5?mode=SETTINGS Philips Machine Simulator]
* [https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co64127/phillips-economic-computer-analog-computer Phillips Economic Model] on display in the Science Museum, London

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}
[[Category:1940s computers]]
[[Category:Analog computers]]
[[Category:Computer-related introductions in 1949]]
[[Category:Early British computers]]
[[Category:Economics models]]
[[Category:Mechanical computers]]
[[Category:New Zealand design]]
[[Category:Hydraulics]]
[[Category:Economy of the United Kingdom]]