The Edison Effect 大发明家--爱迪生

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 1

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 2 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 3 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 4 that sent

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

then able to send several telegraph messages simultaneously 5 .

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 6 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 7 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.

大发明家──爱迪生

有许多人认为是爱迪生一手创造了二十世纪。虽然有不少人可能有不同的看法，但有一

件事是无法否认的，爱迪生是个天才，以及他的发明深刻地影响了现代社会的发展。

1847年爱迪生出生于俄亥俄州。他仅仅只上了三个月的学。在爱迪生的老师声称他有学

习障碍之后，他的母亲决定在家教他。在家里，爱迪生可以随心所欲地探索最使他感兴

趣的事物。十岁那年，爱迪生在家里的地下室建了一间科学实验室。从此，爱迪生就成

了一位孜孜不倦的实验者。

十二岁时，爱迪生找到了他的第一份工作──在火车上卖糖果和报纸。三年后，一场火

车事故导致他耳朵受伤，几乎完全失聪。他本可以接受手术治疗，但他拒绝了，因为他

坚信听觉的丧失可以让他更专心地做实验。

电报自动转发器是托马斯·爱迪生的第一个发明。他发明的这种装置，用于在无人看管

的两站之间传输电报信号，在此项发明前，爱迪生就已经是位电报专家了。幸亏有爱迪

生，我们才能在同一时间传送好几封电报讯息。

接下来的电子记票器让统计票数的速度更快、更准确，但却没有人要买。之后，爱迪生

转而进行股票行情收录器的研究，他把收录器作了改进并将该项专利以四万美元卖出。

近三十岁时，爱迪生盖了一座“发明工厂”，可让他和他的同事专心致力于发明工作。

在改进了电话功能后，爱迪生又发明了留声机，这是他喜爱的而且最能赚钱的一项发明

。虽然爱迪生实际上并没有发明灯泡，但他的确发明了电灯照明系统，这导致了灯泡的

广泛使用。

1882年，这位孜孜不倦的实践家建成了第一座中央电站，使纽约市成为世界上第一个有

电力照明设备的城市，这就是现代世界的开始，电成为人们的一种生活方式。

第二年，爱迪生手下的一名工程师发现了电子，最后导致电子学的产生。这个发现以“

爱迪生效应”获得发明专利。假若没有电子学，我们可能就没有收音机、电视机、电脑

，甚至太空旅行。在最后的岁月里，爱迪生继续创造并改进那些发明，其中包括电影摄

像机、碱性电池、复印机，以及麦克风。

爱迪生1931年去世，享年84岁。在他死后三天，美国大部分地区使灯暗下来来纪念这位

在历史上对现代文明发展最具影响力的发明家。