Business

In the Leeds University Business School is the Mark I model of the Monetary National Income Automatic Computer (MONIAC). This machine is a hydraulic computer which uses water to represent the flow of water through an economy.

Water is pumped to the top where it enters the economy as ‘income’. As it flows down, the machine can demonstrate the effects of variable factors such as government taxation and spending, savings and investments, and imports and exports.

The machine was developed by Bill Phillips, a student at the London School of Economics, and his friend Walter Newlyn, a lecturer at the University of Leeds. With a grant of £100 from the Economics Department at Leeds, the two spent the summer of 1949 working together on their creation, which received its first public demonstration on November 29th of that year.

The 'Mark I' version was a great success, and the following year Phillips began work on Mark II, which added several new features to the original and through its use in economic analysis helped to resolve a major dispute between Keynesian and Robertsonian theorists. About 14 of the second model were made, and sold to universities and financial institutions across the world, including the Harvard Business School and the Central Bank of Guatemala.

The single Mark I prototype (also known as the Newlyn-Phillips Machine) went to the University of Leeds. It remains on display in the Business School alongside an art installation by Walter Newlyn’s daughter Kate. To find the display enter the Business School via the main entrance, walk past the reception and through the arch at the end of the foyer. The display will be on your left.

Click here to see museum volunteer Mike Finn talk about the machine at Leeds. Anyone wishing to learn more about the operation and history of the Newlyn-Phillips Machine will find this bibliography helpful as a starting point. You can see a video of a Newlyn-Philips machine in action here.