---
title: "Nicholas Barr"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "person"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "Nicholas Barr"
aliases: []
first_seen: "2026-08-20T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["MONIAC","James Meade","Bill Phillips","LSE archives"]
seek_code_commit: "17d9798"
---


British economist at the London School of Economics, and author of "The
Phillips Machine" (*LSE Quarterly*, Winter 1988) — the standard scholarly
history of the [[claim-phillips-moniac-hydraulic-economic-computer-1949|MONIAC]],
built from LSE's own institutional archives and James Meade's personal
papers. In this vault his article is both the most detailed source available
on the machine's construction and funding, and the traceable origin of a
widely repeated but uncited "±2%" accuracy figure that Phillips's own primary
account and an independent museum-curator's description both contradict.

## References
- [[claim-barr-1988-uncited-2-percent-accuracy-figure-contradicted-by-phillips-and-swade]]
- [[claim-moniac-400-pound-figure-is-lse-second-machines-budget-not-original-prototype]]
- Captures: 10-inbox/raw/2026-08-20-do-the-moniacs-400-build-cost-and-2.md