Building the ENIAC
The ENIAC is a notable trend setter in early computers in terms of who bankrolled it: the military. This pattern would continue on for many years, before the computer inevitably ended up in the hands of the average consumer. Before that, though, computers were reserved for military use, usually calculating artillery trajectories or complex ballistic tables.
The ENIAC was first imagined by Mauchly, although he quickly partnered with Eckert after realizing that he wasn’t very good at electrical engineering. The two would propose the machine to the military in 1942, and the two were given a six month contract and $61,700. It was completed in secret under the codename ‘Project PX’. Construction would be complete by 1945, and the first report on the computer would be published that year.
The ENIAC would be in operation until 1955.