美国印象：爱迪生（2015）

Edison said to a reporter.
只有这次他没有多讲
And for once,he left it at that.
他讨厌让他从思考和发明分心的事情
He hated anything that took him away from the tinkering and the thinking and the inventing,
他一直这样
but he kept doing it.
他说,“我知道如何做到
He says,"I know how to do this
上帝作证 我会做到“
and with God as my witness,I'm going to do this."
这样的固执给了我们这个非凡的成就
And so that stubbornness gets us to this extraordinary accomplishment
真真切切地改变了世界
that really,really,really changed the world.
1884年7月中旬
It was the middle of July 1884--
对爱迪生只是在纽约的一个漫长工作日
and for Edison,just another long day of work in New York--
有消息从门洛帕克传来
when word from Menlo Park arrived.
在他在那里的房♥子里
Mrs.Edison had taken to her bed
爱迪生太太病倒在床上
in the house they still owned there.
病情严重
She was desperately ill.
玛丽的不明疾病 一直是爱迪生家庭的压力源头
Mary's puzzling ailments had long been a source of stress in the Edison household.
最近她父亲去世的悲痛
But in her grief over the recent death of her father,
似乎使她比以往任何时候更脆弱
she had seemed more fragile than ever.
医生已经叫来 但帮不了多少忙
A doctor had been called,but there was little he could do.
8月9日凌晨2点 玛丽·爱迪生去世
At 2:00 in the morning on August 9,Mary Edison died.
她只有29岁
She was 29.
很有可能
There's a good possibility
她死于吗♥啡♥过量
that she may have died from morphine overdose.
第三次怀孕造成一些严重并发症
She appears to have had some serious complications
使她不断经历苦痛
from her third pregnancy,which created a lot of pain.
那时几乎每种药 都含鸦♥片♥和吗♥啡♥
In that era,opium and morphine were used in almost every drug,
意外过量并不少见
and accidental overdoses were not uncommon.
但她的死非常突然
But you know,her death was pretty sudden.
爱迪生必须急忙回家 才勉强赶上最后一面
Edison had hurried home barely in time to say goodbye.
他女儿马里昂后来回忆 醒来去找他
His daughter Marion later would recall waking to find him
他在妻子床前 “极度悲伤”
at his wife's bedside,"shaking with grief."
我们可以推测爱迪生
We can speculate that Edison felt guilt
为这些年感到内疚
for having spent all these years,
在他们整个婚姻生活中
the entirety of their married life,
远离家庭
removed from the household,
沉浸在实验室的世界里
immersed in the world of the lab.
现在一切都结束了
And now it was all over.
其他情况下
Under other circumstances,
爱迪生可能会把自己沉浸于工作
Edison might have immersed himself in work,
但手头没有创造性的项目
but he had no inventive project to consume him.
电力发明结束 拆散了
Electric power had unraveled
门落帕克的发明团队
the creative fraternity of Menlo Park,
他信任的副手分别
as his trusted lieutenants had scattered
管理各种照明方面的事宜
to manage his various lighting concerns.
爱迪生本人自珍珠街启动
Edison himself had spent the two years
电力扩展系统
since the launch of Pearl Street
已不知疲倦地工作了两年
working tirelessly to extend his system,
尽管这使他成为百万富翁
and though the effort had made him a millionaire,
但他对金钱并没有太大兴趣
money for its own sake did not much interest him.
(隆隆)
(chugging)
爱迪生37岁
Edison was 37 years old now
突然成了鳏夫 有三个孩子要养育
and suddenly a widower with three children to raise.
玛丽去世仅几周后
Just weeks after Mary's death,
他让母亲照顾男孩们
he left the boys in her mother's care,
带着12岁的女儿马里昂
and with 12-year-old daughter Marion in tow
去参加费城国际电子展
headed for the International Electrical Exhibition in Philadelphia
和一个老朋友 易斯拉·吉利兰 会合
and a rendezvous with an old friend,Ezra Gilliland.
当电报员时 他们就认识对方
They had known each other as telegraphers.
他们实际通过发送莎士比亚戏剧 练习电报技巧
They actually practiced their telegraph skills by transmitting Shakespeare's plays.
易斯拉·吉利兰是他多年最好的朋友
So Ezra Gilliland is his best friend for many years.
1884年他们在费城见面
And in 1884,they meet in Philadelphia
并决定他们着手
and decide that they're going to go off
建立创造性的伙伴关系
and become kind of an inventive partnership.
合作带来更新的友谊
Collaboration brought a renewed companionship,
1885年冬天
and in the winter of 1885,
一起南下休闲
a meandering leisure trip together south.
在佛罗里达州迈尔斯堡
In Florida,on a whim,
爱迪生一时兴起买♥♥了13英亩河滨土地
Edison bought 13 riverside acres in Fort Myers
一半地皮给了他老朋友
and gave half the plot to his old friend.
两人在那里并排修建了度假屋
The two would build vacation homes there,side by side.
总之爱迪生让自己感情
Briefly,Edison makes himself emotionally more open
比以往更开放
than he had ever been before.
仿佛他决定离开工作
It's as if he had resolved to leave the world of work
尝试不同的人生
and try a different style in approaching life.
通过吉利兰
It was through Gilliland
爱迪生被介绍给米娜·米勒
that Edison was introduced to Mina Miller,
一个俄亥俄州著名实业家19岁的女儿
the 19-year-old daughter of a prominent Ohio industrialist.
38岁的爱迪生立即动心
Edison,then 38,was instantly smitten.
没多久 就对年轻的米勒小姐非常痴迷
Before long,the young Miss Miller had become an obsession.
“想着米娜
"Got thinking about Mina
差点被街车撞到“
and came near to being run over by a streetcar,"
他在日记中写道
he wrote in a diary.
“如果米娜的干扰再多
"If Mina interferes much more,
将来要买♥♥一个意外保险了“
will have to take out an accident policy."
在吉利兰避暑别♥墅♥的假期中 终于重逢
Reunited finally while on holiday at Gilliland's summer home,
爱迪生教米娜莫斯电码 用手传递信息
Edison taught Mina Morse code,tapping out messages on her hand
这样即使在一起时 也可以私下交流
so they might communicate privately even when in company.
他以相同方式求婚
He proposed in the same manner.
不像他第一任妻子
Unlike his first wife,
米娜在一个非常复杂的环境里长大
Mina grew up in a very sophisticated world.
她父亲自己就是发明家
She was the daughter of someone who was himself an inventor.
她在社交圈里
She'd moved in society circles.
她知道在名人周围 意味着什么
She knew what it meant to be around famous people
找谁结婚的问题 比很多女子 有更好的感觉
and had a better sense than a lot of women would have of what it would be like to marry one.
她意识到他是爱迪生先生
She realized he was Mr.Edison,
她意识到他是大人物
she realized he was a big shot,
但她也有她自己的兴趣
but she had her own interests,
她有更多的自我意识
and she had much more of a sense of herself.
婚姻带来了新房♥子
With marriage came a new house,
新泽西州西橘一座23间房♥子的大屋
a grand 23-room mansion in West Orange,New Jersey.
又生了三个孩子 一个女儿和两个儿子
Three more children-- a daughter and two sons--
最终加入爱迪生的家庭
would eventually join the Edison family.
现在他的家庭生活安定
Now that his domestic life was settled,
发明家急于回到他的最爱
the inventor was anxious to get back to his first love.
爱迪生对作为有家室的想法
The way in which Edison thought about himself as a family man
在给第二任妻子的信里 极好地描述了
is best captured by a letter to his second wife.
他写道 “你 孩子 实验室
He writes,"You and the children and the laboratory
在我生命中 都是最重要的“
are the most important things in my life."
提到实验室 意味很多
And I think the inclusion of laboratory tells you a lot.
我认为实验室
I would argue that the laboratory
可能应该列在最前面
probably ought to be at the top of that list.
“我不想成为有钱人的玩物”
"I want none of the rich man's usual toys,"
爱迪生曾告诉记者
Edison once told a reporter.
“我没时间和他们耗
"I have no time for them.
我要的是一个完美车间“
What I want is a perfect workshop."
1887年12月开张时
When it opened in December 1887,
爱迪生的“完美车间” 用他自己的话说
Edison's "perfect workshop" was,in his own words,
是“现存设备最好和最大的实验室”
"the best equipped and largest laboratory extant."
在主街上占据一角
Occupying a corner lot on Main Street,
就在新家的山下
just down the hill from his new home,
建筑群包括一个庞大的中♥央♥建筑
the complex included a sprawling central structure
面♥积♥60000平方尺
that,at 60,000 square feet,
比门洛帕克大十倍
was ten times larger than Menlo Park.
除了机械车间
In addition to machine shops
化学和实验室
and chemical and experimental rooms,
还有庞大的技术图书馆和储藏室
there was a vast technical library and a stockroom
骄傲的发明家打趣地说
furnished,as the proud inventor quipped,
以“从大象皮到参议员眼球的所有东西”装♥修♥
with "everything from an elephant's hide to the eyeballs of a United States Senator."
他告诉一个可能的支持者 “我的计划
"My plan," he told a prospective backer,
“关注于只需小投资的那类发明
"contemplates to working on only that class of inventions"which require but small investments for each.
而不是像电灯那类繁琐的发明“
No cumbersome inventions like the electric light."
爱迪生相当有想法