There are many people who say Thomas Edison single-handedly invented the twentieth century. Although there are those who may disagree， one thing cannot be denied： Edison was a genius， and his inventions greatly affected the development of modern society.

Born in 1847 in Ohio， Thomas Edison attended school for only three months. After his teacher claimed that he could not learn， Edisons mother decided to teach him at home. There he was allowed to explore the subjects that most interested him. By age ten， Edison had built a science laboratory in the basement of his familys home and had become an avid experimenter.

Edison got his first job at age twelve on the railway selling candy and newspapers. Three years later， he suffered an ear injury from a train accident and lost much of his hearing. He could have had an operation， but he refused. He insisted that being deaf helped him concentrate on his experiments.

Thomas Edisons first invention was the automatic telegraph repeater. He was already an expert on the telegraph before he came up with a gadget that sent telegraph signals between unmanned stations. Thanks to Edison， people were then able to send several telegraph messages simultaneously.

Next came the electric vote recorder. It made voting quicker and more accurate， yet no one wanted to buy it. Edison then moved on to tackle the stock market ticker， the machine that gave information about stock market prices. Edison improved it， and sold the rights for US$40，000.

In his late twenties， Edison built an “invention factory” where he and his business partners could dedicate all their time to inventing. After improving upon the telephone， Edison created the phonograph， his favorite and most lucrative invention. Although Edison did not actually invent the light bulb， he did create an electric lighting system which led to its widespread use.

A tireless achiever， Edison established the first central electric power station in 1882， enabling New York to be the first city in the world to have electric lights. This was the beginning of the modern world in which electricity became a way of life.

The following year， one of Edisons engineers discovered electrons， which eventually led to electronics. This discovery was patented as the “Edison effect”. Without electronics， we might not have radio， TV， computers， or space travel. The rest of Edisons life was spent making and improving inventions including the motion picture camera， the alkaline battery， the copy machine， and the microphone.

Thomas Edison died at the age of eighty-four in 1931. Three days later， much of America dimmed its lights in honor of the inventor—man who had more impact on the development of present-day civilization than anyone else in history.

有許多人認(rèn)為是愛迪生一手創(chuàng)造了20世紀(jì)。雖然不少人可能有不同的看法，但有一件事無法否認(rèn)：愛迪生是個(gè)天才，他的發(fā)明深刻地影響了現(xiàn)代社會(huì)的發(fā)展。

1847年，愛迪生出生于俄亥俄州。他僅僅上了三個(gè)月的學(xué)。在愛迪生的老師聲稱他有學(xué)習(xí)障礙之后，他的母親決定在家教他。在家里，愛迪生可以隨心所欲地探索最使他感興趣的事物。十歲那年，愛迪生在家里的地下室建了一間科學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)室。從此，愛迪生就成為一位孜孜不倦的實(shí)驗(yàn)者。

十二歲時(shí)，愛迪生找到了他的第一份工作──在火車上賣糖果和報(bào)紙。三年后，一場(chǎng)火車事故導(dǎo)致他耳朵受傷，幾乎完全失聰。他本可以接受手術(shù)治療，但他拒絕了，因?yàn)樗麍?jiān)信，聽覺的喪失可以讓他更專心地做實(shí)驗(yàn)。

電報(bào)自動(dòng)轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)器是愛迪生的第一個(gè)發(fā)明。他發(fā)明的這種裝置，用于在無人看管的兩站之間傳輸電報(bào)信號(hào)。在此項(xiàng)發(fā)明前，愛迪生就已經(jīng)是位電報(bào)專家了。幸虧有愛迪生，我們才能在同一時(shí)間傳送好幾封電報(bào)訊息。

接下來的電子計(jì)票器讓統(tǒng)計(jì)票數(shù)的速度更快、更準(zhǔn)確，但卻沒有人買。之后，愛迪生轉(zhuǎn)而進(jìn)行股票行情收錄器的研究，他改進(jìn)了收錄器，并將該項(xiàng)專利以四萬美元賣出。

近三十歲時(shí)，愛迪生蓋了一座“發(fā)明工廠”，可讓他和他的同事專心致力于發(fā)明工作。在改進(jìn)了電話功能后，愛迪生又發(fā)明了留聲機(jī)，這是他喜愛的而且最能賺錢的一項(xiàng)發(fā)明。雖然愛迪生實(shí)際上并沒有發(fā)明燈泡，但他的確發(fā)明了電燈照明系統(tǒng)，這促進(jìn)了燈泡的廣泛使用。

1882年，這位孜孜不倦的實(shí)踐家建成了第一座中央電站，使紐約市成為世界上第一個(gè)有電力照明設(shè)備的城市。這就是現(xiàn)代世界的開始，用電成為人們的一種生活方式。

第二年，愛迪生手下的一名工程師發(fā)現(xiàn)了電子，最終產(chǎn)生了電子學(xué)。這個(gè)發(fā)現(xiàn)以“愛迪生效應(yīng)”為名獲得發(fā)明專利。假若沒有電子學(xué)，我們很可能就沒有收音機(jī)、電視機(jī)、電腦甚至沒有太空旅行。在最后的歲月里，愛迪生繼續(xù)創(chuàng)造并改進(jìn)那些發(fā)明，其中包括電影攝像機(jī)、堿性電池、復(fù)印機(jī)及麥克風(fēng)。

愛迪生于1931年去世，享年八十四歲。在他死后三天，美國(guó)大部分地區(qū)暗下燈來，紀(jì)念這位在歷史上對(duì)現(xiàn)代文明發(fā)展最具影響力的發(fā)明家。