Were Dilton to sell his invention and the intellectual property rights therein to an oil rich member nation of OPEC, he would now have a sizable chunk of money. It would not put him on par with Hiram Lodge, but it would be noticeable. The thing, though, might be that Dilton is of a personality that he does not care about material possessions, and the money dropped to him from, oh say, Saudi Arabia would immediately be shovelled into funding his next attempts at new technology, as apt to dry up in failure as it is land on success.
I do have to like how the retouched figures retain their poses, turban or white swim trunks. Though it wouldn’t be too culturally out of place if one of them had retained a beard. And couldn’t they have concocted some new character making his way through the sand dunes of Arizona (yes, Betty, the United States too is “one of those” “sand dune countries”) to take the place of the… Camel jockey*… who is making his way to the next race?