The printing press is considered one of the greatest inventions of all time. It started a revolution and changed the way ideas are communicated around the world.
Here’s a fun statistic about the press related to them Tesla Inc. TSLA chairman Elon Musk, the the richest person in the world.
What happened: The Gutenberg printing press was invented 1440 from Johannes Gutenberg in Germany.
Ten years later, the press was ready for commercial use. Among the first items printed by Gutenberg were calendars and pamphlets. In 1452 Gutenberg began printing a Bible, of which an estimated 180 copies were printed. An estimated 21 complete copies survive.
The printing press would also become an integral part of book printing and money printing.
Now printing money with the Gutenberg printing press is illegal. But even if you could, it might not make you the richest person in the world.
Catch Elon Musk: Musk is worth based on his current estimate of $246 billion own a 15% of Tesla (155,039,144 shares as of August 2022) and approximately 40% owned by SpaceX.
With $ 246 billion, Musk is clearly ahead Amazon.com Inc. AMZN founder jeff bezoswhich ranks second at $151 billion Bloomberg.
Musk has also overtaken several well-known investors and company founders at the top of the list over the years. At one point in 2021, Musk was worth enough to buy every MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL team based on current ratings.
Here’s a crazy statistic: If you bought a Gutenberg press in 1440 and started printing $1 million a day, you still wouldn’t be worth Musk.
The dollar wasn’t around by Coinage law introduced the official U.S. coinage system in 1792. For the purposes of this hypothetical wealth builder, let’s assume you could print $1440. Here’s the math:
- Printing was invented 582 years ago…
