万能课桌的设计方案:有谁能提供一些关于爱迪生的资料？最好是英文的。

[学习资料]爱迪生的资料

19世纪80年代中期，爱迪生的电灯事业获得了成功，这一成功比以往任何成就给他带
来的声誉都大。在80年代中期以前，他很少有失误，中期以后，尽管他也取得了很大成
就，但失败也是屡见不鲜的。爱迪生最不值得称赞的行为之一就是他批评交流电，说它有副
作用，可能造成死亡与损伤，但他未加具体说明。所以有人说，“像他这样一个自己搞出了
许多发明创造的人竟然对别人的新发明大加攻击，这是很矛盾的事。”他反对使用交流电而
赞成直流电，因而在一场激烈而固执的论战中败北。在这方面，反映出了爱迪生成为名人之
后渐渐滋生的顽固守旧的缺点。

西奥兰治的新生活

1884年爱迪生37岁。这一年对爱迪生来说，是他悲伤的一年。
爱迪生从1881年冬开始，在纽约居住的时间越来越长，相对在门罗公园的时间越来越
短。他的妻小都住在纽约，老家门罗公园成了专供夏天避暑的地方。爱迪生全家在门罗公园
度过了几个夏天。1884年夏天，玛丽·爱迪生在这里患了伤寒，这是一种危险的疾病。起
初以为她只不过是受了点凉，吃几服药就会好的。因此，正在纽约奋战的爱迪生没有去看
她。玛丽的妹妹爱丽丝和医生们每天尽力看护，一直在床边陪伴。
不久，夫人的病情恶化，爱迪生也有好几天没有去研究所了。爱迪生被人笑做“工作
虫”，他不到研究所来是很少有的事情，所以同事们都很担心。爱迪生夫人康复的希望落
空，1884年8月9日凌晨，玛丽·爱迪生去世。在住宅中举行丧仪后，就把棺柩运到一个
小车站上，由火车送到她儿时的家乡纽约克。她去世的消息是8月16日发出的：著名发明
家爱迪生之夫人突于本月九日星期六于新泽西门罗公园逝世。十二日下午举行丧礼，到宾客
400余人。其中有爱迪生公司经理爱登，副经理约翰逊，劳雷，德纳瓦洛与罗斯福等人。吊
客致送鲜花极多。她被埋葬在纽约克快乐山的墓地上。
爱迪生夫人去世后给他遗下了三个幼年的孩子，11岁的多特，8岁的小阿尔瓦(Thomas
Alva Jr ．)和6岁的威廉·莱斯(William L．)。妻子的谢世，使他感到了从未有过的孤
寂。然而他不得不继续工作。他是不能因此而把工作停顿下来的。他把他的住屋租给了威廉
姆(William )和霍尔泽(Alice h olzer )，把孩子们送到纽约去，托外祖母史蒂威尔代管。
门罗公园所能给予那发明家的除了悲伤的回忆外别的什么也没有了，他于是把那些机
件、药品、仪器等统统搬了出来而把它舍弃了。
几年之后这所老屋因为受到雷击而焚毁了，宾夕法尼亚铁路旁的那所旧时的电灯厂也烧
毁了。在爱迪生搬出后是农夫们搬去居住的。
实验室楼上的那间大房间租出作为跳舞会之用。休西(L．m ．Hussey )利用它作为他的
管乐队的总部，并在室后搭起了一个舞台。楼下的一层曾一度充作牛棚。这所古老的建筑物
渐渐地分散了，木料也给拆了去建筑近边的房屋，最后也就倒塌了。
那所砖筑的机器厂的东头改成门罗公园消防处堆储杂物的储藏室。另一端也曾一度充作
牛棚。有一个名叫麦康纳尔(Thomas j ．McConncl )的农夫住在那间玻璃小室里，在那草场
上养了许多猪。后来一家姓威尔考克斯(Willcox )的搬进那以前的办公室的屋中来，并且在
屋中养了许多的鸡。
在1884年和1885年之间的岁月中爱迪生的生活是寂寞单调的。玛丽在世时，她对汤姆
没有太多的要求，她爱他，理解他的事业的重要，爱迪生没有那么多的时间过家庭生活，但
玛丽总是等待着他。现在爱迪生非常寂寞单调，他也许已向她道歉，因为他没有花很多时间

爱迪生的资料

19世纪80年代中期，爱迪生的电灯事业获得了成功，这一成功比以往任何成就给他带
来的声誉都大。在80年代中期以前，他很少有失误，中期以后，尽管他也取得了很大成
就，但失败也是屡见不鲜的。爱迪生最不值得称赞的行为之一就是他批评交流电，说它有副
作用，可能造成死亡与损伤，但他未加具体说明。所以有人说，“像他这样一个自己搞出了
许多发明创造的人竟然对别人的新发明大加攻击，这是很矛盾的事。”他反对使用交流电而
赞成直流电，因而在一场激烈而固执的论战中败北。在这方面，反映出了爱迪生成为名人之
后渐渐滋生的顽固守旧的缺点。

Edison, Thomas Alva

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1847?931, American inventor, b. Milan, Ohio. A genius in the practical application of scientific principles, Edison was one of the greatest and most productive inventors of his time, but his formal schooling was limited to three months in Port Huron, Mich., in 1854. For several years he was a newsboy on the Grand Trunk RR, and it was during this period that he began to suffer from deafness, which was to increase throughout his life. He later worked as a telegraph operator in various cities.

Edison's first inventions were the transmitter and receiver for the automatic telegraph, the quadruplex system of transmitting four simultaneous messages, and an improved stock-ticker system. In 1877 he invented the carbon telephone transmitter (see microphone) for the Western Union Telegraph Company. His phonograph (patented 1878) was notable as the first successful instrument of its kind.

In 1879, Edison created the first commercially practical incandescent lamp (with a carbon filament). For use with it he developed a complete electrical distribution system for light and power, including generators, motors, light sockets with the Edison base, junction boxes, safety fuses, underground conductors, and other devices. The crowning achievement of his work in this field was the Pearl St. plant (1881?2) in New York City, the first permanent central electric-light power plant in the world. He also built and operated (1880) an experimental electric railroad, and produced a superior storage battery of iron and nickel with an alkaline electrolyte.

Other significant inventions include the Kinetoscope, or peep-show machine. Edison later demonstrated experimentally the synchronization of motion pictures and sound, and talking pictures were based on this work. During World War I he helped to develop the manufacture in the United States of chemicals previously imported; he also served as head of the U.S. navy consulting board concerned with ship defenses against torpedoes and mines. Edison later worked on the production of rubber from American plants, notably goldenrod.

Edison held over 1,300 U.S. and foreign patents, and his workshops at Menlo Park (1876) and West Orange, N.J. (1887), were significant as forerunners of the modern industrial research laboratory in which teams of workers, rather than a lone inventor, systematically investigate a given subject. An Edison memorial tower and light was erected (1938) in Menlo Park, N.J.; Edison's laboratory and other buildings associated with his career are preserved or replicated in Greenfield Village. Some of his various companies were consolidated to form the General Electric Company (GE).

See the autobiographical Diary and Sundry Observations (ed. by D. D. Runes, 1948, repr. 1968); his papers, ed. by R. V. Jenkins et al. (4 vol., 1989?; biography by R. Silverberg (1967); W. Wachhorst, Thomas Alva Edison: An American Myth (1981).

Thomas Edison lost his first job.For the next five years he went around the country from job to job.At last Edison went to New York.He had little money.He could not buy enough food to eat.He had no place to sleep.

For many days Edison looked for work.He was hungry.At last he found work fixing machines.He could fix the old machines.He also made new ones.The headman liked Edison?s new machines.He was going to give Edison ＄40,000 for them.Edison would now have money to do what he wanted.

Thomas Edison was then 23.He used the money to build a shop in New Jersey.He had many people working for him.But he worked more than any of them.He rested very little.Soon he was making more than 40 new things at one time.

In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell made a telephone.But it could carry voices only a little way. Edison wanted to make a better telephone.He soon made one.It could carry voices a long way.

One of the most famous and prolific inventors of all time, Thomas Alva Edison exerted a tremendous influence on modern life, contributing inventions such as the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera, as well as improving the telegraph and telephone. In his 84 years, he acquired an astounding 1,093 patents. Aside from being an inventor, Edison also managed to become a successful manufacturer and businessman, marketing his inventions to the public. A myriad of business liaisons, partnerships, and corporations filled Edison's life, and legal battles over various patents and corporations were continuous. The following is only a brief sketch of an enormously active and complex life full of projects often occurring simultaneously. Several excellent biographies are readily available in local libraries to those who wish to learn more about the particulars of his life and many business ventures.

Edison's Early Years

Thomas A. Edison's forebears lived in New Jersey until their loyalty to the British crown during the American Revolution drove them to Nova Scotia, Canada. From there, later generations relocated to Ontario and fought the Americans in the War of 1812. Edison's mother, Nancy Elliott, was originally from New York until her family moved to Vienna, Canada, where she met Sam Edison, Jr., whom she later married. When Sam became involved in an unsuccessful insurrection in Ontario in the 1830s, he was forced to flee to the United States and in 1839 they made their home in Milan, Ohio.

Thomas Alva Edison was born to Sam and Nancy on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio. Known as "Al" in his youth, Edison was the youngest of seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Edison tended to be in poor health when young.

To seek a better fortune, Sam Edison moved the family to Port Huron, Michigan, in 1854, where he worked in the lumber business.

Edison was a poor student. When a schoolmaster called Edison "addled," his furious mother took him out of the school and proceeded to teach him at home. Edison said many years later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had some one to live for, some one I must not disappoint." At an early age, he showed a fascination for mechanical things and for chemical experiments.

In 1859, Edison took a job selling newspapers and candy on the Grand Trunk Railroad to Detroit. In the baggage car, he set up a laboratory for his chemistry experiments and a printing press, where he started the Grand Trunk Herald, the first newspaper published on a train. An accidental fire forced him to stop his experiments on board.

Around the age of twelve, Edison lost almost all his hearing. There are several theories as to what caused his hearing loss. Some attribute it to the aftereffects of scarlet fever which he had as a child. Others blame it on a conductor boxing his ears after Edison caused a fire in the baggage car, an incident which Edison claimed never happened. Edison himself blamed it on an incident in which he was grabbed by his ears and lifted to a train. He did not let his disability discourage him, however, and often treated it as an asset, since it made it easier for him to concentrate on his experiments and research. Undoubtedly, though, his deafness made him more solitary and shy in dealings with others.

Thomas Edison, Inventor

Born: 11 February 1847
Birthplace: Milan, Ohio
Died: 18 October 1931 (natural causes)
Best Known As: The man who invented the light bulb
Name at birth: Thomas Alva Edison

Edison was the genius inventor of the electrical age, a man whose hundreds of inventions made him a public giant in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among Edison's most famous inventions are the light bulb, the phonograph and the stock ticker; he also helped refine and develop other inventions like motion pictures and the typewriter. By the end of his life Edison had registered 1093 patents and had made millions from his inventions and the businesses he built on them. He is especially known for his work with electricity, and the story of his struggles to find the right filament for the first working light bulb are legendary. Edison's labs were located in Menlo Park, New Jersey, leading to his nickname: "The Wizard of Menlo Park." Edison is also famous for being a dogged worker: he often slept no more than four hours per night and made the famous statement, "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

Edison became close friends with another inventor/businessman, Henry Ford -- the two often vacationed together and had adjoining winter homes in Fort Myers, Florida... Edison's name lives on in several modern companies including Consolidated Edison ("Con-Ed")... Edison had a public rivalry with another electrical genius, Nikola Tesla...thanks to guys like Edison and Louis Lumiére, movies are a part of modern life.
1879
Jan 2 Begins construction of his first generator.
Jan 19?9 Conducts an extensive series of experiments on platinum and other metals.
Mar 14 Edison's nephew, Charles P. Edison, tests the new electromotograph (loud-speaking) telephone receiver in London.
Mar Devises a bipolar generator design ("Long-legged Mary Ann").
May 14 Incorporates the Edison Telephone Company of Europe.
May Provides a generator for running arc lights aboard the USS Jeannette during its Arctic mission.
June 17 Receives an honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the trustees of Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Spring Begins a search for plentiful supplies of platinum in the mining regions of Canada and in the western and southern United States.
Aug 2 Participates in organizing the Edison Telephone Company of London.
Aug Hires glassblower Ludwig Boehm and begins developing improved vacuum pumps.
Summer Makes improvements in his electromotograph telephone receiver for England.
Oct 14 Signs an agreement with Jose D. Husbands for the sale of Edison telephones in Chile.
Oct 22 Conducts the first successful experiment with a high-resistance carbon filament.
Nov 1 Executes his first patent application for a high-resistance carbon filament (U.S.