美国印象：爱迪生（2015）

had been working more or less around the clock,
更特别的是吓坏一些投资者
and most especially because it unnerved some of his investors,
以华尔街银行家JP摩根为首的富商
a cabal of wealthy businessmen led by Wall Street banker J.P.Morgan.
他们已经投入大量资金
They had invested a lot of money.
急切希望得到一些可行的证据
They were beating the doors,wanting to get some evidence that this was actually going to work.
爱迪生理解
Edison understood
他必须对华尔街人士甜言蜜语
he had to keep sweet-talking the Wall Street people
他们支持他并不停地说 “那又怎样?”
that were backing him and who kept saying,"So?"
有时他给来门洛帕克的投资人
There were occasions when he had financiers out to Menlo Park
一个带奉承的工作进程的幕后演示
to give them a flattering behind-the-scenes demonstration of what they were working on.
有急躁也有期待
There was impatience,but there was also a lot of expectation.
你还不如给爱迪生一些钱
You know,you might as well have a little bit of money riding on Edison
因为他会做出些东西
because he was going to do something.
爱迪生毫不怀疑他会成功
Edison had no doubt that he would succeed.
他需要的是时间
What he needed was time.
他后来说 “在思考发明
"There is a wide difference
和把产品推上市场间
between contemplating an invention," he later said,
有巨大差异”
"and putting the manufactured article on the market."
开始研究电灯时
When he set out to work on electric lighting,
他很早就意识到
he realized pretty early
这个愿景包含了一切
that the vision encompassed everything,
并且是个艰难的事情
and that this was going to be a slog.
我们记得著名的灯泡
We remember famously the light bulb,
当然你得把灯泡拧到插座上
but of course you've got to screw the light bulb into a socket.
插座要接线
The socket has to be wired.
系统有电表
The system has to be metered.
还得有发电机
There has to be a generator.
的确要落实一个大型复杂的系统
It's really a massively complex system to put in place
让灯泡工作
to get that light bulb to go off.
我认为开始他没有
I mean,I don't think he,going in,
意识到它多么复杂
realized how complicated it was.
我认为他有那种感觉
I think he has that sense
如果你采取这种能量形式 驯服它
that if you take this energy form and you tame it,
然后在一个中心位置分发
and then you distribute it in one central place,
通过电网传给大家
think of the network of people
可以转动旋钮得到照明
that can turn a knob and get light.
这不是那种梦幻模糊的眼光
This isn't a dreamy and gauzy kind of vision.
这是一个
It's a vision of,
“这有可能 我们下面要做些什么"的愿景
"This can happen.What do we do next?"
该项目已经
Already,the project
完全改变门洛帕克
had completely transformed Menlo Park.
国内最先进的新机械车间已建成
A new state-of-the-art machine shop had been built,
系统各种组件的发展正在进行
development of the various components of the system had gotten underway,
几十个人添加到工资单上 -
and dozens of men had been added to the payroll--
其中有新员工厄普顿
among them,the new hire Upton,
一个26岁普林斯顿毕业的物理学家
a 26-year-old Princeton-educated physicist
爱迪生因他漂亮的教育背景称他“文化人”
whom Edison nicknamed "Culture"for his fancy educational pedigree.
厄普顿是个训练有素有学问的人
Upton was a more trained,learned man.
爱迪生是有点无情
Edison was a little bit merciless,
有点戏弄他
kind of teasing him about it.
有次
And at one point,
爱迪生要求他计算一个灯泡的体积
Edison asked him to calculate the volume of a light bulb.
厄普顿绘制灯泡并用球锥柱来粗算
Upton draws the light bulb and he approximates it as a sphere and a cone and a cylinder
在他计算的同时
and he's calculating away,and while he does this,
爱迪生把沙子倒进倒出
Edison fills the thing full of sand and pours it out
有效完成实证测量
and effectively does an empirical measurement.
呈现了他自己那种自然的光彩
You know,showing his own sort of natural brilliance.
厄普顿从容接受嘲讽
Upton took the ribbing in stride,
对爱迪生的“直觉”敬畏
awed by what he called Edison's "intuitions."
事实上直觉只是第一步
In fact,intuition was just the first step.
同样重要的是发明人对电学规则的理解
Equally crucial was the inventor's understanding
这让他要寻找一种非常特别的灯泡
of electrical laws,which had set him on a quest for a very particular sort of bulb.
过去几个月里
Over the previous months,
爱迪生为对各种物质
a variety of substances with the properties Edison was after
可能用作灯丝的特性做严格测试
had been rigorously tested as filaments
设计了几十个灯泡原型
and dozens of bulb prototypes designed.
不过 厄普顿写信给父亲
Still,as Upton put it to his father,
“我们还没有达到预想”
"We have not as yet what we want."
爱迪生有句名言 他没有失败
Edison is famous for saying that he didn't fail;
他只是发现数千种无效的方法
he just found thousands of ways that didn't work.
对他而言 这是发明过程中的一个进步
And to him,that was a progress on the path of getting something that would.
到1879年夏天
By the summer of 1879,
门洛帕克团队在接近目标
the Menlo Park team was gaining on its object.
首先是制♥造♥一个高真空管
First came the creation of a high-vacuum bulb,
优于以前任何人制♥造♥过的
so superior to any other ever produced
爱迪生很高兴而向科学推进协会分享成果
that Edison was moved to share his results with the Association for the Advancement of Science.
然后一系列有希望的实验
Then came a series of promising experiments
使用碳纤维
with carbon filaments.
现在科学界注意到
Now the scientific world has taken notice.
他们可能不把他看成伟大的科学家
They may not see him as a great scientist,
而是值得尊敬的智者
but the smart ones knew enough
对解决问题很拿手
to respect that he was really good at solving problems.
最后1879年10月22日凌晨
Finally,in the wee hours of October 22,1879,
灯泡里安装上碳化棉线的长丝
a bulb was fitted with a filament of carbonized cotton thread
按实验室已形成的习惯 留着烧尽
and,as had become laboratory custom,was left to burn.
它一小时一小时地继续
And so it continued to do,hour after hour,
超过13个半小时
for more than 13 and a half hours.
(鸟鸣)
(birds chirping)
厄普顿天亮后回到实验室
Upton,returning to the laboratory at daybreak,
吃惊地发现灯还亮着
was amazed to find the light still on.
突然间实验室每个人都感到
All of a sudden,the possibility of a successful lamp
灯泡成功的可能性
became apparent to everybody in the laboratory.
他们意识到 “这就是解决方案”
They realized,"Hey,this is the solution."
“如果可以点亮那么长时间”
"If it can burn that number of hours,"
爱迪生在一片欢呼声中说
Edison said amid the cheers of his men,
“我知道我能让它烧一百小时”
"I know I can make it burn a hundred."
“当这盏灯为世界所知时将是个大轰动"
"There will be a great sensation when the light is made known to the world,"
弗朗西斯·厄普顿告诉父亲
Francis Upton reported to his father,
“它比任何人预期的好太多了”
"for it does so much more than anyone expects can be done."
现在纽约报纸
Now,from the New York papers,
透露在1879年门洛帕克
came word of the public unveiling of Edison's light,
爱迪生的电灯将公开亮相
to be held at Menlo Park on New Year's Eve,1879.
(汽笛)
(whistling)
突然
All of a sudden,
数百人来到门洛帕克
hundreds of people descend on Menlo Park.
必须在火车上增加专用车厢
They have to put special cars on the trains
以容纳所有希望看到爱迪生新奇迹的人
in order to accommodate all the people that want to see this new marvel of Edison's.
你能想象肯定会是啥样
You can imagine what it must have been like.
你从纽约坐火车来
You're coming out from New York on a train.
漆黑的夜晚 地上覆盖积雪
It's a dark night,fields kind of snow-covered.
你到门洛帕克
You get to Menlo Park,
从铁道上看像是在山丘上
it's kind of up on the hill from the railroad track,
你看那里有这些灯
and you see these lights up there.
大多数人看起来这肯定像仙境
It must have looked like a fairyland almost to people,
漆黑夜晚来到这个地方
coming out in the dark of night to this place
以从未见过的方式照明
that was lit up in a way they'd never seen before.
从车站沿路有20路灯
20 lampposts lighted their walk from the depot,
实验室本身“灯火辉煌”
while the laboratory itself was "brilliantly illuminated,"
一位记者注意到约30盏灯泡在晚上放光
one reporter noted,with some 30 bulbs that glowed long into the night.
灯泡象征这样的能力
The light bulb symbolized the ability
逼退夜晚
to push back the night.
把夜晚这个人类原始局限变成白昼
Turning night into day,which had been a primordial limitation on humanity,
是惊人的变革
was amazing and transformative.
“无人内心有疑问“
"There can be no particle of doubt in anyone's mind,"
‘纽约先驱报‘放言
raved the New York Herald,
“电力照明是个确定的成功”
"that the electric light is a success,and a permanent one."
让自己回到所有照明都是火焰的世界
Put yourself back into this world where everything to do with light was a flame,
想象突然间
and imagine that all of a sudden,
有一天改变了
one day,that changes.
有一种我们正进入全新世界的感觉
There was a sense in which we were entering a brave new world.
爱迪生代表了这个新世界的到来