名人軼事：The Edison Effect 大發(fā)明家--愛迪生 02

There are many people who say Thomas Edison single-handedly invented the

twentieth century. Although there are those who may disagree, one thing

cannot be denied: Edison was a genius, and his inventions greatly affected

the development of modern society.

Born in 1847 in Ohio, Thomas Edison attended school for only three months.

After his teacher claimed that he could not learn, Edison's mother decided to

teach him at home. There he was allowed to explore the subjects that most

interested him. By age ten, Edison had built a science laboratory in the

basement of his family's home and had become an avid experimenter.

Edison got his first job at age twelve on the railway selling candy and

newspapers. Three years later, he suffered an ear injury from a train

accident and lost much of his hearing. He could have had an operation, but he

refused. He insisted that being deaf helped him concentrate on his

experiments.

Thomas Edison's first invention was the automatic telegraph repeater. He was

already an expert on the telegraph before he came up with a gadget that sent

telegraph signals between unmanned stations. Thanks to Edison, people were

then able to send several telegraph messages simultaneously .

Next came the electric vote recorder. It made voting quicker and more

accurate, yet no one wanted to buy it. Edison then moved on to tackle the

stock market ticker, the machine that gave information about stock market

prices. Edison improved it, and sold the rights for US$40,000.

In his late twenties, Edison built an "invention factory" where he and his

business partners could dedicate all their time to inventing. After improving

upon the telephone, Edison created the phonograph, his favorite and most

lucrativeinvention. Although Edison did not actually invent the light bulb,

he did create an electric lighting system which led to its widespread use.

A tireless achiever, Edison established the first central electric power

station in 1882, enabling New York to be the first city in the world to have

electric lights. This was the beginning of the modern world in which

electricity became a way of life.

The following year, one of Edison's engineers discovered electrons, which

eventually led to electronics, the branch of science dealing with

electricity. This discovery was patented as the "Edison effect". Without

electronics, we might not have radio, TV, computers, or space travel. The

rest of Edison's life was spent making and improving inventions including the

motion picture camera, the alkaline battery, the copy machine, and the

microphone.

Thomas Edison died at the age of eighty-four in 1931. Three days later, much

of America dimmed its lights in honor of the inventor— man who had more

impact on the development of present-day civilization than anyone else in

history.

大發(fā)明家──愛迪生

有許多人認為是愛迪生一手創(chuàng)造了二十世紀。雖然有不少人可能有不同的看法，但有一

件事是無法否認的，愛迪生是個天才，以及他的發(fā)明深刻地影響了現(xiàn)代社會的發(fā)展。

1847年愛迪生出生于俄亥俄州。他僅僅只上了三個月的學。在愛迪生的老師聲稱他有學

習障礙之后，他的母親決定在家教他。在家里，愛迪生可以隨心所欲地探索最使他感興

趣的事物。十歲那年，愛迪生在家里的地下室建了一間科學實驗室。從此，愛迪生就成

了一位孜孜不倦的實驗者。

十二歲時，愛迪生找到了他的第一份工作──在火車上賣糖果和報紙。三年后，一場火

車事故導致他耳朵受傷，幾乎完全失聰。他本可以接受手術治療，但他拒絕了，因為他

堅信聽覺的喪失可以讓他更專心地做實驗。

電報自動轉發(fā)器是托馬斯·愛迪生的第一個發(fā)明。他發(fā)明的這種裝置，用于在無人看管

的兩站之間傳輸電報信號，在此項發(fā)明前，愛迪生就已經(jīng)是位電報專家了。幸虧有愛迪

生，我們才能在同一時間傳送好幾封電報訊息。

接下來的電子記票器讓統(tǒng)計票數(shù)的速度更快、更準確，但卻沒有人要買。之后，愛迪生

轉而進行股票行情收錄器的研究，他把收錄器作了改進并將該項專利以四萬美元賣出。

近三十歲時，愛迪生蓋了一座“發(fā)明工廠”，可讓他和他的同事專心致力于發(fā)明工作。

在改進了電話功能后，愛迪生又發(fā)明了留聲機，這是他喜愛的而且最能賺錢的一項發(fā)明

。雖然愛迪生實際上并沒有發(fā)明燈泡，但他的確發(fā)明了電燈照明系統(tǒng)，這導致了燈泡的

廣泛使用。

1882年，這位孜孜不倦的實踐家建成了第一座中央電站，使紐約市成為世界上第一個有

電力照明設備的城市，這就是現(xiàn)代世界的開始，電成為人們的一種生活方式。

第二年，愛迪生手下的一名工程師發(fā)現(xiàn)了電子，最后導致電子學的產(chǎn)生。這個發(fā)現(xiàn)以“

愛迪生效應”獲得發(fā)明專利。假若沒有電子學，我們可能就沒有收音機、電視機、電腦

，甚至太空旅行。在最后的歲月里，愛迪生繼續(xù)創(chuàng)造并改進那些發(fā)明，其中包括電影攝

像機、堿性電池、復印機，以及麥克風。

愛迪生1931年去世，享年84歲。在他死后三天，美國大部分地區(qū)使燈暗下來來紀念這位

在歷史上對現(xiàn)代文明發(fā)展最具影響力的發(fā)明家。