【精英翻譯】的部落格

精英翻譯轉自https://paper.udn.com/papers.php?pname=POH0054

The lightbulb is one of the most important inventions of the last 200 years. It has allowed us to do things at night that would otherwise be inconceivable. Can you imagine lighting up a highway with candles or trying to drive your car using the dim glow of gas lamps? Many people believe that the lightbulb was invented by Thomas Edison, but is that really the case?

電燈泡是過去兩百年間的一項重要發明。它讓我們可以從事夜間活動，如果少了它，就辦不到了。你能夠想像在整條高速公路上點滿蠟燭的情景嗎？或是在油燈的暗淡光芒下開車？很多人都認為電燈泡是愛迪生發明的，但真的是如此嗎？

Edison was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio, USA. In school, Edison was often absentminded, and his teachers did not think he was an intellectual. In 1854, his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, where the young Edison sold candy and newspapers on trains from Port Huron to Detroit. These early sales experiences allowed Edison to cultivate his talents as a businessman and eventually led him to found 14 companies, including General Electric, which is still flourishing today.

愛迪生在1847 年出生於美國俄亥俄州的米蘭。在學校時，愛迪生常心不在焉，在老師的眼中，他不是個聰明的孩子。1854年，他們全家搬到了密西根州的修倫港。在那裡，年少的愛迪生常在往來於底特律和修倫港的火車上兜售糖果和報紙。早年的銷售經驗讓愛迪生得以磨練自己在生意上的潛能。他最後創立了14家公司，其中還包括到現在仍生意興榮的通用電氣公司。

Edison started his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey, and in 1878 he formed the Edison Electric Light Company. During his first public demonstration of his incandescent lightbulb on December 31, 1879, he said, "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles." Lightbulbs were not the only things Edison worked on. He also established the first industrial research laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. There, Edison and his assistant, William J. Hammer, worked on the telephone, developed the electric railway, and patented the United States' first movie camera.

愛迪生在紐澤西的紐阿克開始他的發明事業。1878年時，他成立了愛迪生電燈公司。1879年12月31日首次公開展示明亮的電燈泡，他說：「我們會讓電便宜到只剩有錢人還在點蠟燭。」電燈泡不是愛迪生唯一發展的事業，他還在紐澤西的門洛花園設立了第一間工業研究室。在當地，愛迪生和他的助理威廉．漢默研究改良了電話、開發了電力火車，並申請到電影攝影機的專利權。

However, Edison did not invent many of the things he is said to have invented, but he did improve them so that they could be sold to the public. He did not invent the electric lightbulb, for example, which had been invented seven decades earlier. He did, however, develop a long-lasting, practical electric lightbulb and start the first company that made and sold them. The only major invention that Edison did invent was the record player. It was this invention in 1877 that made him renowned the world over as the Wizard of Menlo Park.

然而事實上，愛迪生並沒有像傳說中發明了那麼多東西，他只是將這些東西改良到可以販售給大眾。比如，他並沒有發明電燈泡，電燈泡早在70年前就已出現。但是愛迪生的確開發了長效且實用的電燈泡，並設立了第一家製造並販賣電燈泡的公司。而他唯一親手發明的主要產品是留聲機。他在1877年所發明的留聲機讓他一舉成名，而他也以紐澤西「門洛公園的魔術師」名號聞名於世。