the process. Many were out-of-work hairdressers, because, with the guillotining of the aristocracy, the hairdressing trade, which had tended the elaborate hairstyles of the elite, was in recession.Due to their lack of experience, they only had to calculate simple problems of addition and subtraction. In addition, this group did not operate under a factory-like model, instead opting to work from home, sending their results and receiving their new tasks from the planners in a non-centralized manner. These calculators could produce an average of around 700 calculations a day. Importance for mapping The tables developed by de Prony's team were doubly important for French metric cartography. Firstly, at the time, sailors needed logarithms for math pertaining to spherical geometry, because this was needed to quickly and accurately position themselves to guarantee safe and efficient travel across the seas. However, the implementation of the new French Revolutionary metric system would make the old logarithmic tables would be obsolete, and French sailors would be unwilling to switch measurement systems since it would have rendered positional calculations significantly more difficult and less precise. Thus, de Prony, by making new logarithmic tables for the new metric system, would have facilitated the transition, enabling sailors to adopt the system. The second key element was that trigonometric values were needed for cadastral measures. Thus, for accurate mapping of the French territory and its subdivisions all the way down to the lowest levels of property ownership, de Prony needed to complete the trigonometric tables. These were both seen as crucial for Revolutionary pride considering the importance of naval prowess at the time and the need for administrative efficiency. Enlightenment calculations According to Prony, the project was to leave "nothing to desire with respect to exactitude" and to be "the most vast... monument to calculation ever executed or even conceived." The tables were not used for their original purpose of bringing consistent standards for measurement, as the entire cadastre project saw delays in establishing both new measurement units as well as budget cuts. In particular, these tables, which were designed for the decimal division of circles and time, turned out to be obsolete after the French had changed their measurement system. Moreover, there was no practical use for the full extent of de Prony's calculation's accuracy. Hence, these tables became more of artifacts and monuments to Enlightenment rather than objects of practical use. Influence on the meaning of calculation