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Let me don my tinfoil hat and say that one of the major functions of a computer back then was fire control for artillery, later seconded only by cracking Axis encryption. Maybe anyone who tried to source 10,000 reliable relays in 1938 got a knock on their door...

[tinfoil hat off]

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I don't think that is as crazy as it sounds. Remember, back then, the commercial potential of a "computer" was for the military.

Even if you had the idea & concept back then, AND the money to build it - what would you do with it? You're not using it like we use computers today...

Certainly artillery. Could a ground density measure have been made with 1800s tech? I think probably.

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