Who Was Thomas Alva Edison 爱迪生Chapter 5 Turning on the Light

It was the summer of 1878. Tom had been working hard for a long time. He was thinking about taking a vacation. Then a friend invited him to join a group of scientists. They were traveling by train to Wyoming to see an eclipse of the sun.

Tom decided¹ to go. He had been working on a machine he called a tasimeter for measuring temperature. He saw the trip as a chance to try it out.

Tom enjoyed talking to other scientists. After the eclipse, he and his friend traveled on together by train. It is said that Tom persuaded the train engineer to let him ride on the cowcatcher—the metal grate on the front of the train. This way Tom had the best view of the spectacular scenery until the train came to a tunnel and he had to get back inside the car.

At this point in his life, Tom wasn’t sure what he would work on next. On this trip out west, he stood and looked at the Platte River rushing by. He wondered out loud to his friend why the power of the river’s flow couldn’t be used to provide electricity to miners nearby. They were drilling for ore by hand, and it was obviously slow, hard work.

Tom’s friend told him about a man he knew in Connecticut who had found an interesting way to use the power of electricity. He could send enough electricity to light up not just one arc light, but eight. An arc light makes light when an electric current jumps across the space between two carbon rods. The problem is that the light is harsh and bright. Arc lights also threw off sparks and could start a fire indoors. They were better suited for using outdoors.

Up to now, indoor lighting² came from candles, oil lamps, or gas lamps. None of them gave off enough light to do much after dark. Gaslight had been around since the early 1800s. But it was expensive. Gas lamps made walls black and dirty. Sometimes its smell caused headaches. Gas could be dangerous, too, if it leaked or exploded. Fires might start. Still, gaslight was popular because it was the best light available.



It could be found in homes, offices, factories, and outdoors in larger towns and cities around the country.

Tom was eager to see how the man in Connecticut was using electricity to light up his eight arc lights. He was surprised and interested to find out that the man was not using batteries, but a small generator³ made of a magnet and coils of wire.

Tom was very impressed with the eight arc lights. But he went home knowing that if he was to succeed with electric light he had to develop a simple lightbulb, which gives off a bright, soft glow from a heated filament⁴, or material, inside the bulb. This was known as incandescent⁵ lighting.

Tom was all fired up to work on electric light. He knew that other people around the world were working on this too. He wanted to be the first to succeed. But he knew that inventing a working lightbulb wasn’t enough. He had to invent one that could be sold at a price people could afford.



Tom also knew that he would have to figure out how to provide the electrical power to light up whole neighborhoods, whole cities—in fact, the whole country. That meant building power plants to provide the electricity.

Never shy about talking about his inventions, Tom wrote in his notebook: “The electric light is the light of the future, and it will be my light unless some other fellow gets up a better one.”

It wasn’t long before Tom was boasting to reporters that he would have his electric light ready in weeks. Not only that, he would build a power station on Pearl Street in Manhattan. It would bring electric light to a whole section of New York City! The area he chose was in the center of the city’s financial district.

Why would Tom make such an announcement? He still had no idea how he would do this. Maybe he wanted to scare off other inventors. Maybe he did it to attract investors⁶. Tom needed a lot of money to make this all happen.

Well, he got the money from rich men in New York City. Maybe this genius was about to put the gas companies out of business. The new electric lights might make lots of money. They didn’t want to be left out. So before Tom even had anything to show, investors founded the Edison Electric Light Company.

Tom always loved having visitors at his lab in Menlo Park. He loved showing off his inventions, especially to reporters.

Now all that changed. He didn’t want anyone coming over. He had bragged⁷ about electric light almost as if it existed already. And it didn’t! He hadn’t even applied⁸ for patents to protect his ideas.

Tom and his “Boys” settled in for some long, hard work.

First, and most importantly, they had to make a bulb that was a vacuum. That meant no oxygen—a gas in the air we breathe—could be left inside the bulb. A filament will glow much longer if it heats up in a vacuum.

Tom hired a fantastic glassblower who could give him almost perfect, hollow bulbs. And, luckily, at about this time, a vacuum pump had been invented. It could suck almost all the air out of the bulbs.

The hardest task turned out to be finding the right filament, or material, that would carry the electric current and glow for a long time inside the bulb.

There were other problems too. The lights could not be wired in a series, or one to the other along the same wire. Why? If one went out, they all did.

Six weeks came and went. What about that neighborhood in New York, the one Tom said he was going to light up? Newspapers began writing stories accusing Tom of bragging⁹.

Tom was still searching for the right filament. He tried so many materials—fish line, bamboo, spiderwebs, even the hair from one of his workers’ head. For a while he thought that platinum¹⁰ was going to work. But even if it had, it would be too expensive to use.

Sometimes Tom would take time out to play a tune¹¹ with two fingers on the organ he had put in the laboratory. Maybe it helped him think.

The “Boys” kept testing everything they could think of—over three thousand materials in all. Tom knew that finding out what did not work was as important as finding what did. A year and a half went by. Nothing.

But Tom did not give up, and one day he hit upon the answer. It was simple sewing thread covered in carbon and baked to just the right temperature.

On October 22, 1879, Tom’s lightbulb glowed for thirteen and a half hours. The next one glowed for over a hundred hours. Tom and his team were ecstatic. They had done it! Tom was only thirty-two years old.

Tom set up electric lights in Menlo Park for the December holiday season. They were powered by a new generator in the machine shop. It had two five-foot-high magnets and weighed over five hundred pounds.

Over three thousand people poured into Menlo Park to see what the “Wizard” had done now. They came by train and walked along the boardwalk to the laboratory. They looked up in amazement¹² at the one hundred lamps glowing all along the way. Once inside, they were stunned¹³ by the rooms lit with electric lights.

Now Tom turned to lighting up part of New York City He needed a power plant, lines running underground, switches, meters, light fixtures¹⁴, and many other things to keep his promise.

It would take another two and a half years, but on September 4, 1882, at three o’clock in the afternoon, a switch was thrown at the central station on Pearl Street. In the Wall Street offices of one of his important investors, Tom turned on all 106 new office lamps for the very first time. Tom knew that this was only a beginning. One day his electric light would be used all over the world.
GASLIGHT

IN 1816, COAL GAS LAMPS LIT UP A STREET IN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND. IT WAS THE FIRST AMERICAN STREET TO HAVE GASLIGHTS. LATER, LAMPS WERE USED INDOORS.

NATURAL GAS COMES RIGHT OUT OF THE GROUND. A WELL TWENTY-SEVEN FEET DEEP WAS DRILLED IN FREDONIA, NEW YORK, IN 1820. GENERAL LAFAYETTE, A HERO OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, VISITED AND WAS SERVED A DINNER COOKED ON A GAS STOVE IN A ROOM LIT BY GASLIGHT. IT WAS A MARVEL¹⁵ IN ITS DAY!

ARC LIGHT

LIGHT IS PRODUCED WHEN AN ARC OF ELECTRICITY JUMPS BETWEEN TWO CHARGED CONDUCTORS. IT WAS TOO BRIGHT, SMELLY, AND EXPENSIVE FOR USE IN HOMES AND OFFICES.

1 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。

2 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

3 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

4 filament   

n.细丝；长丝；灯丝

参考例句：

• The source of electrons in an electron microscope is a heated filament.电子显微镜中的电子源，是一加热的灯丝。
• The lack of air in the bulb prevents the filament from burning up.灯泡内缺乏空气就使灯丝不致烧掉。

5 incandescent   

adj.遇热发光的， 白炽的，感情强烈的

参考例句：

• The incandescent lamp we use in daily life was invented by Edison.我们日常生活中用的白炽灯，是爱迪生发明的。
• The incandescent quality of his words illuminated the courage of his countrymen.他炽热的语言点燃了他本国同胞的勇气。

6 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

7 bragged   

v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He bragged to his friends about the crime. 他向朋友炫耀他的罪行。
• Mary bragged that she could run faster than Jack. 玛丽夸口说她比杰克跑得快。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 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。

9 bragging   

v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的现在分词 )；大话

参考例句：

• He's always bragging about his prowess as a cricketer. 他总是吹嘘自己板球水平高超。 来自辞典例句
• Now you're bragging, darling. You know you don't need to brag. 这就是夸口，亲爱的。你明知道你不必吹。 来自辞典例句

10 platinum   

n.白金

参考例句：

• I'll give her a platinum ring.我打算送给她一枚白金戒指。
• Platinum exceeds gold in value.白金的价值高于黄金。

11 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

12 amazement   

n.惊奇，惊讶

参考例句：

• All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
• He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。

13 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

14 fixtures   

（房屋等的）固定装置( fixture的名词复数 )； 如（浴盆、抽水马桶）； 固定在某位置的人或物； （定期定点举行的）体育活动

参考例句：

• The insurance policy covers the building and any fixtures contained therein. 保险单为这座大楼及其中所有的设施保了险。
• The fixtures had already been sold and the sum divided. 固定设备已经卖了，钱也分了。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

15 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。