Earl Wilson: Meter Made Money
on Friday, June 10, 2022Earl Wilson Money Quote saying that brilliant Ben Franklin invented electricity generation, but the guy who measured and metered it got rich. Earl Wilson said:
“Ben Franklin may have discovered electricity – but it is the man who invented the meter who made the money” — Earl Wilson
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In this quote, Earl Wilson is pointing out that while Benjamin Franklin made an important scientific discovery by identifying electricity, he did not financially benefit from it directly. It was the inventor of the electricity meter, the device that could measure and bill for electricity usage, who truly profited and “made the money” from Franklin’s discovery.
Wilson is suggesting that having a pioneering scientific or technological idea is not always enough on its own to achieve great wealth – it often requires taking that innovation a step further and devising practical applications or business models to monetize the discovery, as the meter inventor did in capitalizing on the new availability of electric power.
The quote emphasizes how the commercial development and implementation of an invention can be just as important as the original concept in terms of reaping financial rewards.
Birthday: May 3, 1907 – Death: January 16, 1987