Who Was Thomas Alva Edison 爱迪生Chapter 2 Young Inventor

Al was twelve when his father helped him get a job on the Grand Trunk Railroad¹. The train traveled back and forth² between Port Huron and Detroit, Michigan, every day.

Al was a newsboy. Along with other boys, he sold newspapers, magazines, and snacks like candy and peanuts or sandwiches. The train didn’t have a dining car. The passengers had to bring their own food or buy it from the boys.

The train left Port Huron at seven in the morning and returned at nine in the evening. It was a three-hour journey each way. Al had lots of time in Detroit before the trip back home.

Al was not a boy to sit around and do nothing. He spent time at the library reading, mostly science books. He also began to dream up other ways to make money on the train. He bought things from the Detroit market and sold them to train riders on the way home to Port Huron. In Port Huron he took vegetables from his family’s farm and sold them at the station.

Then in Detroit he noticed that a newspaper was throwing out ink, paper, and old pieces of type. Al bought a small printing press and started a weekly newspaper. He called it the Grand Trunk Herald³. A subscription⁴ cost eight cents a month. He sold about two hundred copies a week. People liked it because it carried local news, train schedules, ads—and gossip⁵.

Al set up his printing press right there in the baggage car on the train. He also set up a simple lab. He wrote. He printed. He did experiments. The conductor didn’t mind.

Then one day, one of his chemical mixtures caught fire. The conductor did mind now! He was really angry with Al. He picked him up and threw him off the train along with all his stuff⁶. But Al didn’t lose his job as a newsboy. He just couldn’t have a lab on the train anymore.

In 1861, the Civil War broke out between the North and the South. Michigan was on the side of the North, the side of the president, Abraham Lincoln. People were particularly anxious for news. It was not long before Al saw a way to sell even more newspapers. He got a telegraph⁷ operator⁸ in Detroit to wire the war news of that day ahead to the stations on the way to Port Huron. Operators⁹ wrote the news on a chalkboard at the station. By the time the train arrived, people had heard what was happening, and they wanted to read more about the events of the day in the newspaper. Al usually sold about a hundred papers. On the day when the sad news came of the terrible battle at Shiloh, Tennessee, where more than 23,000 men were killed or wounded, he sold one thousand newspapers.

Al was a teenager now, and he decided¹⁰ he wanted to be called Tom. From then on he was known as Tom or Thomas.

One day Tom saw a train about to hit the stationmaster’s three-year-old son, Jimmy. He dashed onto the tracks and pulled him to safety.

As thanks, the stationmaster offered to teach Tom about telegraphy. Tom was thrilled. He already knew Morse code¹¹. Here was a chance to learn how to become a real telegraph operator.

By now telegrams were not only sent from railroad stations, but from offices owned by a company called Western Union. Tom worked hard and soon he had a new job. He was just sixteen when he went to work for Western Union in Port Huron.

Later, Tom took jobs with Western Union in other cities. He went from one place to the next. He was getting faster and faster at sending and receiving messages. A good telegrapher¹² could send or receive about forty-five words a minute. Tom wanted to be the best. He practiced at night in his room. He liked to tap out plays, like Hamlet, by William Shakespeare.

One day a friend told Tom about a job at Western Union in Boston, Massachusetts. It was 1868. The Civil War had ended three years before. Now Tom was twenty-one years old. Off he went.

Tom worked at night. During the day he worked on his inventions. He spent time at a machine shop where they could make the parts he needed to build whatever he was working on. This meant that Tom didn’t get much sleep. This habit stayed with him all his life.

Tom always carried a small notebook in his pocket so he could jot¹³ down ideas. The first invention he made that he thought he could sell was an electric voting machine. He had noticed how long it took lawmakers in the Massachusetts legislature to vote. Each vote was written by hand. An electric machine would make voting much faster.

Tom applied¹⁴ for a patent from the U.S. government in Washington, D.C. A patent protects the owner of an idea for an invention. It stops someone else from copying it and selling it. The owner gives the date, time, and place where the idea began. The patent also includes a description and sketches¹⁵ of the idea. It stays on file whether the owner makes the invention or not. Over sixty years’ time Tom was granted¹⁶ 1,093 patents—more than anybody else, even to this day.

Tom tried to sell his voting machine to the state. But the lawmakers didn’t want it. They were glad that voting took a long time. This way, they could try and persuade others to change their vote before the voting was over.

Tom even went to Washington, D.C., to see if the U.S. Congress¹⁷ wanted it. For the same reason, they didn’t.

Tom couldn’t believe it. He decided right then that he would never make any invention unless he was sure people wanted it. It was the only way to make money. Tom didn’t want to be an inventor to become rich. But he understood that it took money to make his ideas happen.

Tom wrote articles about telegraphy. People read them and admired the young inventor. Many called him a genius. Some even wanted to give him money to help him invent things. They were called investors¹⁸.

So Tom quit his job at Western Union. Now he would spend all of his time inventing. He wanted to figure out how to send more than one message over a wire at a time so that more telegrams could be sent. But after only a year, Tom had run out of money. He decided it was time to leave Boston and move to New York City.

1 railroad   

n.铁路；vi.由铁路运输

参考例句：

• The railroad connects two cities,namely,New York and Chicago.这条铁路连接两个城市，即纽约与芝加哥。
• My brother is working on the railroad.我兄弟在铁路系统工作。

2 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

3 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。

4 subscription   

n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方）

参考例句：

• We paid a subscription of 5 pounds yearly.我们按年度缴纳5英镑的订阅费。
• Subscription selling bloomed splendidly.订阅销售量激增。

5 gossip   

n.流言蜚语，爱说长道短的人；vi.传播流言

参考例句：

• She broadcast the gossip all over the town.她将这个流言传遍全镇。
• They spread a lot of tacky gossip about his love life.关于他的爱情生活，他们散播了许多不堪的闲言闲语。

6 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

7 telegraph   

n.电报，电报机；v.打电报，显示

参考例句：

• A new telegraph line has been set up between the two cities.那两个城市之间架设了一条新的电报线。
• Telegraph communication was broken off.电讯中断了。

8 operator   

n.（机器、设备等的）操作员；电话接线员

参考例句：

• He is a computer operator.他是个电脑操作员。
• The telephone operator connected us.话务员给我们接通了电话。

9 operators   

n.（某企业的）经营者( operator的名词复数 )；（机器、设备等的）操作员；电话接线员；投机取巧者

参考例句：

• A plethora of new operators will be allowed to enter the market. 大批新的运营商将获准进入该市场。 来自辞典例句
• Green house operators have considerable opportunity for precise manipulation of nutrients. 温室管理员有很多机会来准确控制养分。 来自辞典例句

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 code   

n.代码，代号，密码；法典，法规，规划

参考例句：

• What's the code for Tianjin?天津的代号是多少？
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

12 telegrapher   

n.报务员，电报员

参考例句：

13 jot   

n.少量；vi.草草记下；vt.匆匆写下

参考例句：

• I'll jot down their address before I forget it.我得赶快把他们的地址写下来，免得忘了。
• There is not a jot of evidence to say it does them any good.没有丝毫的证据显示这对他们有任何好处。

14 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

15 sketches   

n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概

参考例句：

• The artist is making sketches for his next painting. 画家正为他的下一幅作品画素描。
• You have to admit that these sketches are true to life. 你得承认这些素描很逼真。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 granted   

conj.假定，就算v.（退一步）承认( grant的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指正式地或法律上）同意；准许；让渡

参考例句：

• The president granted a general amnesty for all political prisoners. 总统大赦了所有的政治犯。
• She feared she would not be granted re-entry into Britain. 她担心不会获准再次踏足英伦。

17 Congress   

n.(代表)大会；(C-:美国等国的)国会，议会

参考例句：

• There were some days to wait before the Congress.大会的召开还有几天时间。
• After 18 years in Congress,he intented to return to private life.在国会供职18年后，他打算告老还乡。

18 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会