美國著名發(fā)明家愛迪生的故事

1、美國著名發(fā)明家愛迪生的故事 愛迪生（Thomas AlvaEdison，18471931）美國著名發(fā)明家。1847年2月11日生于俄亥俄州米蘭鎮(zhèn)。8歲上學只讀了3個月。老師罵他“小笨蛋”，因為他經(jīng)常愛問為什么而讓老師下不了臺，他輟學后隨母親學習。他對大自然非常好奇。他可以專心致志注視榆樹葉芽怎么生長，秋風如何使楓葉變色。為了試驗孵小雞，他可以長時間趴在雞窩里；為了探索蜂巢的奧秘，他愿意被蜇得鼻青臉腫；為了試驗摩擦生電，他在雄貓身上狠命搓揉直到雙手傷痕累累。9歲那年，他得到一本帕克著自然與實驗哲學，如獲至寶，逐頁研讀，逐項實驗。他在家中地窖里建起一座小實驗室。從12歲起，在底特律休倫間鐵路列車上

2、賣報，把自己的實驗室搬到火車上，利用一切機會學習和實驗。他還在列車上自己編印先鋒周報，從而認識到剛問世不久的電報的作用。1862年他奮不顧身地從火車輪下救出一幼童，幼童的父親為答謝他，教他掌握了電報技術(shù)。 1873年1874年，他發(fā)明了同時發(fā)送二條和四條消息的發(fā)報機。1876年在紐約附近的門羅公園建立起他的“發(fā)明工廠”，一座大型實驗室。許多發(fā)明就是在這里完成的。第一次世界大戰(zhàn)時他任美國海軍技術(shù)顧問委員會主席，完成多項軍事產(chǎn)品的發(fā)明研制。1931年10月18日在新澤西州西奧蘭治逝世。 他以罕見的熱情及驚人的精力，在一生中完成發(fā)明2000多項，其中申請專利登記的達1328項。人們頌揚他：“他雖不發(fā)

3、明歷史，卻為歷史錦上添花”。這位傳奇式人物取得杰出成就的奧秘在于刻苦、勤奮、堅持不懈地學習。他自己曾多次表示：“停止就意味著生銹”，“必須時常收獲，而不能一生只收一次”，“我要做的事如此之多，而生命又如此短促，我不得不擠出時間?！泵绹锢韺W家、諾貝爾獎獲得者密立根贊譽他：“他差不多已70高齡了，還在閱讀科學領域出現(xiàn)的新書，而且不斷地提出問題。” 他的主要研究領域在電學方面。在他掌握電報技術(shù)后，就日夜苦心鉆研，完成了雙路及四路電報裝置及自動發(fā)報機。1877年改進貝爾電話裝置，使電話從傳送23英里擴大到107英里，同年發(fā)明留聲機。在這期間，他付出巨大精力，研制白熾電燈。除電弧燈外，過去的“電燈

4、”往往亮一下就燒毀了，為尋找合適的燈絲，曾對1600多種耐熱材料及6000多種植物纖維進行實驗，終于在1879年10月21日用碳絲做成可點燃40小時的白熾電燈。其后又不斷反復改進、完善，又完成了螺紋燈座、保險絲、開關(guān)、電表等一系列發(fā)明，在此基礎上完成了照明電路系統(tǒng)的研制。在實踐中提出電燈的并聯(lián)連接，直流輸電的三線系統(tǒng)，建成了當時功率最大的發(fā)電機。1888年起研制電影，1893年建立第一座電影攝影棚。是他最先提出將電影手段用于教育，并用兩個班進行試驗。他的其它重大發(fā)明還有鐵鎳蓄電池等。 他雖然精于實驗研究，對理論卻缺乏足夠的重視。盡管他于1885年發(fā)現(xiàn)熱電子發(fā)射的“愛迪生效應”，但未能作出相應解

5、釋。 1931年10月21日在為他舉行葬禮時，人們采用了一種獨特而又恰當?shù)姆绞酵ｋ?分鐘，以悼念這位偉大的發(fā)明家。這“1分鐘”使人們想起他的發(fā)明給電氣時代和社會生活帶來的光Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion pictur

6、e camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credit

7、ed with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.1 Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass commun

8、ication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison devel

9、oped a system of electric-power generation and distribution2 to homes, businesses, and factories a crucial development in the modern industrialized world. His first power station was on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York.明，以及他的可貴的學習創(chuàng)造精神。 Edison is remembered most for the electric light, phonograph

10、and his work with motion pictures.Thomas Edison's major inventions were designed and built in the last years of the eighteen hundreds. However, most of them had their greatest effect in the twentieth century. His inventions made possible the progress of technology.It is extremely difficult to fi

11、nd anyone living today who has not been affected in some way by Thomas Edison. Most people on Earth have seen some kind of motion picture or heard some kind of sound recording. And almost everyone has at least seen an electric light. These are only three of the many devices Thomas Edison invented or

12、 helped to improve. People living in this century have had easier and more enjoyable lives because of his inventions.VOICE TWO:Thomas Alva Edison was born on February eleventh, eighteen forty-seven in the small town of Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children. Thomas Edison was self-taught

13、. He went to school for only three months. His teacher thought he could not learn because he had a mental problem. But young Tom Edison could learn. He learned from books and he experimented. At the age of ten, he built his own chemical laboratory. He experimented with chemicals and electricity. He

14、built a telegraph machine and quickly learned to send and receive telegraph messages. At the time, sending electric signals over wires was the fastest method of sending information long distances. At the age of sixteen, he went to work as a telegraph operator. He later worked in many different place

15、s. He continued to experiment with electricity. When he was twenty-one, he sent the United States government the documents needed to request the legal protection for his first invention. The government gave him his first patent on an electric device he called an Electrographic Vote Recorder. It used

16、 electricity to count votes in an election.VOICE ONE:In the summer months of eighteen sixty-nine, the Western Union Telegraph Company asked Thomas Edison to improve a device that was used to send financial information. It was called a stock printer. Mister Edison very quickly made great improvements

17、 in the device. The company paid him forty thousand dollars for his effort. That was a lot of money for the time. This large amount of money permitted Mister Edison to start his own company. He announced that the company would improve existing telegraph devices and work on new inventions. Mister Edi

18、son told friends that his new company would invent a minor device every ten days and produce what he called a "big trick" about every six months. He also proposed that his company would make inventions to order. He said that if someone needed a device to do some kind of work, just ask and

19、it would be invented.VOICE TWO:Within a few weeks Thomas Edison and his employees were working on more than forty different projects. They were either new inventions or would lead to improvements in other devices. Very quickly he was asking the United States government for patents to protect more th

20、an one hundred devices or inventions each year. He was an extremely busy man. But then Thomas Edison was always very busy. He almost never slept more than four or five hours a night. He usually worked eighteen hours each day because he enjoyed what he was doing. He believed no one really needed much

21、 sleep. He once said that anyone could learn to go without sleep. (MUSIC)VOICE ONE:Thomas Edison did not enjoy taking to reporters. He thought it was a waste of time. However, he did talk to a reporter in nineteen seventeen. He was seventy years old at the time and still working on new devices and i

22、nventions.The reporter asked Mister Edison which of his many inventions he enjoyed the most. He answered quickly, the phonograph. He said the phonograph was really the most interesting. He also said it took longer to develop a machine to reproduce sound than any other of his inventions. Thomas Ediso

23、n told the reporter that he had listened to many thousands of recordings. He especially liked music by Brahms, Verdi and Beethoven. He also liked popular music. Many of the recordings that Thomas Edison listened to in nineteen seventeen can still be enjoyed today. His invention makes it possible for

24、 people around the world to enjoy the same recorded sound. VOICE TWO:The reporter also asked Thomas Edison what was the hardest invention to develop. He answered quickly again - the electric light. He said that it was the most difficult and the most important. Before the electric light was invented,

25、 light was provided in most homes and buildings by oil or natural gas. Both caused many fires each year. Neither one produced much light.Mister Edison had seen a huge and powerful electric light. He believed that a smaller electric light would be extremely useful.He and his employees began work on t

26、he electric light.VOICE ONE:An electric light passes electricity through material called a filament or wire. The electricity makes the filament burn and produce light. Thomas Edison and his employees worked for many months to find the right material to act as the filament. Time after time a new fila

27、ment would produce light for a few moments and then burn up. At last Mister Edison found that a carbon fiber produced light and lasted a long time without burning up. The electric light worked.At first, people thought the electric light was extremely interesting but had no value. Homes and businesse

28、s did not have electricity. There was no need for it.Mister Edison started a company that provided electricity for electric lights for a small price each month. The small company grew slowly at first. Then it expanded rapidly. His company was the beginning of the electric power industry.VOICE TWO:Th

29、omas Edison also was responsible for the very beginnings of the movie industry. While he did not invent the idea of the motion picture, he greatly improved the process. He also invented the modern motion picture film.When motion pictures first were shown in the late eighteen hundreds, people came to

30、 see movies of almost anything - a ship, people walking on the street, new automobiles. But in time, these moving pictures were no longer interesting. In nineteen-oh-three, an employee of Thomas Edison's motion picture company produced a movie with a story. It was called "The Great Train Ro

31、bbery." It told a simple story of a group of western criminals who steal money from a train. Later they are killed by a group of police in a gun fight. The movie was extremely popular. "The Great Train Robbery" started the huge motion picture industry. (MUSIC)VOICE ONE:Thomas Alva Edi

32、son is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures. However, he also invented several devices that greatly improved the telephone. He improved several kinds of machines called generators that produced electricity. He improved batteries that hold electrici

33、ty. He worked on many different kinds of electric motors including those for electric trains. Mister Edison also is remembered for making changes in the invention process. He moved from the Nineteenth Century method of an individual doing the inventing to the Twentieth Century method using a team of

34、 researchers. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirteen, a popular magazine at the time called Thomas Edison the most useful man in America. In nineteen twenty-eight, he received a special medal of honor from the Congress of the United States.Thomas Edison died on January sixth, nineteen thirty-one. In the mo

35、nths before his death he was still working very hard. He had asked the government for legal protection for his last invention. It was patent number one thousand ninety-three.(MUSIC)ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Sarah Long and B

36、ob Doughty.I'm Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.In 1871, Edison started a factory and laboratory in Newark, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from New York City. Newark was known at the time for its community of fine machinists, the kind of people Edison needed to build his telegraph equipment. In that same year, he married Mary S