Phillips Machine

Phillips scrounged materials to create his prototype computer, including bits and pieces of war surplus parts from old Lancaster bombers.

Newlyn helped as a craftsman’s mate—sanding and gluing together pieces of acrylic and supplementing Phillips’ economic knowledge.

[3] 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 machine's ability to model the subtle interaction of a number of variables made it a powerful tool for its time.

It is thought that twelve to fourteen machines were built: The Terry Pratchett novel Making Money contains a similar device as a major plot point.

Economist Kate Raworth's book 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: [11] [12] "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.