Self-built
Folkert de Roos, one of the first professors at the economics faculty, was impressed by Phillips' design. He wanted to have such a machine to explain the ideas of economist Keynes to his students. However, buying a complete one from the Phillips factory was too expensive for the privately financed Vrije Universiteit. But De Roos got the design. And in the quiet hours of the chemistry department the EcoCirc was built between 1951 and 1953. People were so proud of the machine that it was featured in the VU promotional film of 1955.
Downfall and revival
In the seventies, the EcoCirc started to leak and ended up in the basement. The device was brought back upstairs in the 1980s and repaired, after which it fell into disuse again in the 1990s. Generations of students, including Wouter Bos and Gerrit Zalm, know the device. In 2018, the EcoCirc was restored after some 25 years. It is now on display at the School of Business and Economics, on the 8th floor of the VU Main Building.
See also:
Hans Visser, 'Folkert de Roos, voorbeeldig vakman bij wie het om de inhoud ging', in: Flipse, Ab, Verder kijken, Honderdvijfendertig jaar Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in de samenleving (Amsterdam, 2016)
