Does anyone know anything like a percentage of scientific advancements that ended up being hugely beneficial to society, but were originally derided as being po

Does anyone know anything like a percentage of scientific advancements that ended up being hugely beneficial to society, but were originally derided as being pointless wastes of resources? Might be hard to find out, for example, how many Victorians scoffed at Maxwell wasting his time wondering about imaginary waves flying through the air. At least, in 50-100 years, we'll probably still have records of comments and articles like these, which will make it easier to say just how wrong people were about the importance of pure research. (If anyone is reading this in 2100, and it turns out the ROI on these research projects wasn't worth it, feel free to whisper "I told you so" to my ghost.)