One of the most remarkable, unique and longest-tenured parts of the Faculty of Business and Economics sits not within a lecture hall or at a desk, but quietly in a corner of the Giblin Eunson Library.
The MONIAC Machine, one of approximately 12 of its kind in the world, came to the University in 1953.
MONIAC stands for Monetary National Income Analog Computer, and the idea for such a machine was conceived by New Zealand economist William 'Bill' Phillips in 1949.
The first prototype Phillips built used a discarded engine from a World War II Lancaster bomber.
Early computing
As the name suggests, it is a computer, though largely unrecognisable as such in comparison to technology today.
Pumps and pipes move coloured water around a series of chambers, reflecting the economy of mid-century Britain.
Water enters through the ‘active balances’ tank, then is pumped up to the top of the machine to represent the income of the nation. As the water flows downwards to represent expenditure, a human demonstrator can manipulate the machine to syphon the water and imitate particular economic levers.
With careful calibration and operation, the water eventually flows to three main water tanks, which represent three key economic factors – taxes and government spending, saving and investment, and imports and exports.
The MONIAC at Melbourne
Bill Williams had no formal relationship with the University of Melbourne, nor was the machine invented here – but when the Faculty of Commerce’s Professor Wilfred Prest saw a MONIAC machine demonstrated while on a study tour of the United Kingdom, he urged the Faculty to buy one.
In pre-decimalisation Australia, it cost just under £995 – the equivalent of around $40,000 now.
When the machine arrived in Melbourne in 1954, it was operational, and was often used to teach honours classes and entice potential students on Open Day.
During these times, the machine was renowned for flooding tutorial rooms – it often leaked if the demonstrator failed to control the economy properly.
Between 1954 and ‘63 the MONIAC sat in the south-west corner of the Old Commerce Building.
Unfortunately, the machine was damaged in transit to the new Economics and Commerce Building in 1963, and subsequently placed in a storage area. In the 1990s, it was rediscovered and partially restored, before being moved in the early 2010s to the Giblin Eunson Library, where it sits today.
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