The earliest electronic computer, ENIAC, was made to automate the calculation of artilliery firing tables. It could perform these calculations three orders of magnitude faster than the electro-mechanical machines it had replaced. If we had to attach a price to rapid, flawless, calculation, it would help to know that this machine sold for $487,000 United States dollars (USD) in 1946 (or $6,900,000 USD,
