December 1, 2014 at 10:07Water computer simulated the economy 70 years ago
Once the trees were taller, the grass was greener, and computers were running on water. MONIAC, built in 1949, analyzed economic data using hydraulics. Water flowed through pipes and tanks, making it possible to make forecasts in the economy. The seven-foot machine by Rub Goldberg seemed like a strange way to do calculations in this area, but, as historian Doron Swade explains, student Bill Philip wanted to visualize the market, and in those days computers did not have monitors.
Various capacities represent institutions of the economy, such as banks, consumer spending, savings, taxes, foreign holdings and others. As explainsMacRoby, if you find that citizens have too much money - the vessel is full - you can expand the valve and simulate falling stock prices, as if encouraging investment.
A total of 14 cars were built. Now two of them can work: one is located at Cambridge University, the second - at the Museum of the Federal Reserve Bank of New Zealand. In the video below, Cambridge professor Allan McRobie shows off the car in 2004.
On the website of the University of Cambridge you can watch a lecture with a detailed description of the principles of Moniac. There is also a software simulation of the computer.
MONIAC was not the first water computer. In 1936, the Soviet inventor Vladimir Lukyanov introduced the hydraulic integrator. Lukyanov’s hydraulic integrator was a system of pipes with water, which made it possible to solve partial differential equations. Read more about water computers in the journal Science and Life .
Various capacities represent institutions of the economy, such as banks, consumer spending, savings, taxes, foreign holdings and others. As explainsMacRoby, if you find that citizens have too much money - the vessel is full - you can expand the valve and simulate falling stock prices, as if encouraging investment.
A total of 14 cars were built. Now two of them can work: one is located at Cambridge University, the second - at the Museum of the Federal Reserve Bank of New Zealand. In the video below, Cambridge professor Allan McRobie shows off the car in 2004.
On the website of the University of Cambridge you can watch a lecture with a detailed description of the principles of Moniac. There is also a software simulation of the computer.
MONIAC was not the first water computer. In 1936, the Soviet inventor Vladimir Lukyanov introduced the hydraulic integrator. Lukyanov’s hydraulic integrator was a system of pipes with water, which made it possible to solve partial differential equations. Read more about water computers in the journal Science and Life .