美国印象：爱迪生（2015）

"We'll put something on the outskirts of town,
我们只需要建在郊区“
and as your town grows," and remember,
记住这是19世纪的美国 增长非常迅速
this is 19th-century America,it's growing very,very rapidly,
“我们只需从一个电站扩充 并提供更多电力"
"We can just expand and provide more and more electricity from this one power station."
他的竞争对手靠低价销♥售♥
With his competitors undercutting him on cost,
爱迪生感觉挤压
Edison was feeling the squeeze.
国内他有121个电站
To his 121 domestic stations,
西屋开展业务近一年 就达到68个
Westinghouse already had 68 after just one year in business.
交流开始成为真正重要的竞争对手
As AC begins to become a real serious competitor
而西屋系统开始扩展
and as the Westinghouse system begins to spread,
爱迪生的亲信越来越多地
increasingly,Edison's closest associates
请求他转向交流电
are begging him to turn to AC.
交流电有很多优势
There are lots of advantages to AC,
爱迪生拒绝跟从
and Edison refuses to go along with them.
相比直流电 交流电非常复杂
Alternating current is very complicated compared to direct current.
要理解 并让它可行
To understand it,to make it work
需要他不具备的数学能力
requires a level of mathematics he just didn't have.
他只是没有那样的背景
He just didn't have the background.
自己的优势在行业中动摇
With his own dominance in the industry at stake,
爱迪生的竞争特性短了路
Edison's competiti streak short-circuited.
这次不是用发明超出他的对手
This time,instead of out-inventing his rivals,
而是进行无情的抹黑运动
he would conduct a ruthless campaign to discredit them.
充分利用近期接连发生涉及高压线的可怕事故
Capitalizing on a recent spate of grisly accidents involving high-voltage wires,
爱迪生试图使公众相信交流电不安全
Edison now sought to convince the public that AC was unsafe.
他在一个广泛流传的小册子上说
"It's a matter of fact," he warned in a widely-circulated pamphlet,
“任何采用高压的系统都危及生命”
"that any system employing high voltage jeopardizes life."
安全是个重要问题
The safety issue was an important one.
但它也有解决方法 而且已经解决了
But it's also the case that there were ways to solve that,and they were solved.
所以我觉得他真正关心的危险
And so I think he had real concerns about danger,
实际是他的系统
but this was his system.
在西橙现在进行
From West Orange now came accounts
旨在证明AC致命力量的可怕实验:
of gruesome experiments designed to prove AC's deadly power:
狗 小牛 马的触电
the electrocutions of dogs,calves,horses,
都由于交流电装置
all by means of alternating current.
爱迪生也利用自己的专业知识帮助纽约州
Edison also offered his expertise to New York State
引入“人性化”死刑方法的努力
in its effort to introduce a "humane" method of execution,
作证电刑确实比绞刑更人性化
testifying that electricity would indeed be more humane than the gallows.
一直反对死刑的爱迪生
All of a sudden Edison,who had always been against capital punishment,
突然完全支持电椅
suddenly is completely behind the electric chair,
他认为要做到这点 最好是采用
and he feels that the best way to do this is to use,guess what,
西屋公♥司♥的交流发电机
Westinghouse alternating current generators,
这完全是他企图把西屋公♥司♥
and it is fully his intention to associate everything to do
和他们电力的所作所为和死亡联♥系♥起来
with Westinghouse and his electricity with death.
他对别人的技术非常敌对
He had a very adversarial view toward other people's technology
他为保护自己的技术而战
and he fought to preserve his own technology,
可能也导致他的倒台
and that might've been his downfall.
最终爱迪生的恐吓运动
In the end,Edison's grisly campaign
对竞争对手的销♥售♥毫无影响
made not a dent in his competitor's sales.
到1♥8♥9♥0年 JP摩根和爱迪生
And by 1♥8♥9♥0,it was clear to J.P.Morgan
通用电气的其他合伙人
and the other partners in Edison General Electric
已经清楚 未来属于交流电
that the future lay with alternating current,
他们的未来会在与西屋主要对手
and their future profits in a merger
汤姆森-休斯顿公♥司♥合并中受益
with Westinghouse's principal rival,Thomson-Houston.
“如果结盟
"If you make the coalition,
我作为发明家的用处 将不再有“ 爱迪生警告
my usefulness as an inventor is gone," Edison warned.
“我只能在强大动机下发明
"I can only invent under powerful incentive.
没有竞争就意味着没有发明“
No competition means no invention."
这是金主愿意付出的代价
It was a price the money men were willing to pay.
爱迪生的人说 “我们要交流电”
Basically,the Edison people said,"We're going AC."
他被迫退出游戏
So he was forced out of that game
基本就是这么回事儿
is really what happened.
毫无疑问
There's no question about that.
爱迪生和并购毫无关系
Edison had little to do with the merger,
谈判过程中
and in the course of negotiations,
他的名字被去掉
his name was dropped.
从那时起
From then on,
公♥司♥名简化为通用电气
the company would be known simply as General Electric.
他支持错误的技术
He had backed the wrong technology,
最终失去了控制
and the end was he lost control.
爱迪生带着新合并公♥司♥股票
Edison departed with stock in the newly consolidated venture
和董事会一个席位离开
and a seat on its board of directors.
但他渴望继续
But he was eager to move on.
“我要做些比以前更大 更不同的事情"
"I'm going to do something now so different and so much bigger
他告诉秘书
than anything I've ever done before," he told his secretary,
“人们将不会记得我的名字与电相连"
"that people will forget my name was ever connected with anything electrical."
他一直想被看成冠军 爱迪生说
Edison,who always wanted to look like the champion,
“电力是个陈旧的东西
said,"Oh,you know,electricity is an old thing.
“我完成了它
"I'm really done with that.
“我已经创造过那个世界”
"So,you know,I've created this world."
类似“小生物 将继续前进”
Sort of "Lesser beings will move it forward."
但事实上他很伤心
But the truth is he was heartbroken.
新泽西州奥格登斯堡
Ogdensburg,New Jersey--
离西橘30英里一个荒凉区域
a desolate region 30 miles from West Orange,
散落着采石场矿
strewn with quarries and scarred by mines,
从来都是覆盖着灰尘
perpetually covered in dust.
这是1♥8♥9♥0年代初爱迪生退隐的地方
It was to this place that Edison retreated in the early 1♥8♥9♥0s,
他确信其石头环境
convinced that its stony landscape
会屈服于他的下一件大事
would yield to him the next big thing.
美国当时正在建筑热潮的阵痛中
The United States was then in the throes of a building frenzy,
修路架桥
two decades and counting
城市扩张
of railroads and bridges being banged together,
已有二十年并还在继续
cities stretching outward and up.
这依赖于钢和炼钢的铁矿石
All of it hinged on steel,and thus on iron ore,
东部富矿脉在枯竭
and the rich veins in the East were by now running dry.
爱迪生打算用低品位矿石炼铁
Edison intended to keep the nation's steel mills humming
的一个巧妙新工艺
with an ingenious new process
保持这个国家的钢厂运作
for extracting iron from low-grade ore.
(汽笛)
(loud whistling)
(爆♥炸♥)
(explosion)
他发明的过程
He invented the process
首先用炸♥药♥把山炸成巨大石块
that began with dynamiting these mountains,breaking them into giant boulders,
在这些相连的碾鼓里粉碎巨石
pulverizing the boulders in these giant interlocking drums that break them further down,
直到打成鹅卵石大小
then break those down into pebble size,
粉碎后经过筛选系统
pulverize that down through a screening system
最终得到非常好的细沙
so you ended up with this like very fine sediment,
这是把铁分出来的时候了
and that's when the iron was pulled out.
奇妙的想法是把铁矿石磨碎
Fantastic idea to get iron ore,to grind it up,right,
然后把它们扔下去...
and then drop it and have it drop past...
通过一些磁铁
Just let it drop past some magnets,right?
因此铁会被磁铁吸出来
And so the actual iron would be pulled out by the magnets
原来没啥价值的矿石就分离出来
and the worthless ore would fall to the ground.
天才的想法
Genius idea.
爱迪生设计建造
It was not enough that the effort
一整个系列大型新机器 还远远不够
required Edison to design and build a whole series of gargantuan new machines;
他还想使得整个工厂自动化
he also intended to automate the entire plant
使矿石处理再也不接触人手
so that the ore processed there would never once be touched by human hands.
许多年中的第一次
For the first time in many years,
发明家再度沉浸于发明
the inventor could once again immerse himself in inventing.
本质上 爱迪生是解决技术难题好手
Fundamentally,Edison is a technical problem-solver.
这也是他想做的
It's basically what he wants to do,
他要组织一帮同事
and that is,he wants to bring a bunch of his mates together
解决有意思的技术问题
and solve fun technical problems.
在奥格登斯堡他以庞大的规模在做
And at Ogdensburg,he's doing it on a massive scale.
这很有趣
That is fun.
就像个大沙盘
That's like a big sandbox.
从1♥8♥9♥0年后工厂初具规模
From 1♥8♥9♥0 on,as the plant took shape
技术人员发展到200人
and the technical staff grew to more than 200,
奥格登项目 耗费爱迪生越来越多时间
the Ogden works consumed more and more of Edison's time.
最后在1♥8♥9♥4年 他完全搬到矿区
Finally,in 1♥8♥9♥4,he moved up to the mine entirely,
承诺米娜 周日回西橘
promising Mina to return home to West Orange on Sundays.
最终他在那里建了个小屋