100 Entrepreneurs Who Changed The World
57. Matthew Boulton(1728-1809)
“I sell here, sir, what the world desires to have—power.”
Matthew Boulton was an English manufacturer and the business partner of Scottish engineer James Watts. The partnership was fruitful, producing and installing Boulton& Watt steam engines in hundreds of locations. The engines were state of the art and allowed factories and mills to mechanize, thus greatly increasing production and lowering costs. Boulton also applied modern methods to the minting of coins, adapting steam power to power the mints. He struck millions of pieces of currency for Britain and other countries. He also supplied the Royal Mint of Great Britain new, state of the art equipment. Both he and James Watts were members of the famed Lunar Society, a group of prominent men from Birmingham, England, who were prominent in the arts and sciences and who made significant contributions to the industrialization of England.
