Text 1

Henry Ford

    Although you may not own a car of your own, you must have heard of Ford cars, one of the oldest make in car history and car industry. The text presents a detailed story about the father of Ford cars and the birth of the world-famous automobiles.

    Henry Ford was born in 1863, on a farm near Detroit. He loved putting machines together as well as taking them apart. He was always dreaming of machines to make his work easier. He could make tools out of odd bits of metal.

    Instead of working on the family farm, young Henry went off to Detroit and became an engine-repairer. At the New Year's dance of 1885, Henry met Clara Jane Bryant, and fell in love with her. Henry built Clara Jane a house with his own hands. They were married and stayed together for fifty-nine years.

    At this time, there were a few "horseless carriages" on the roads, but most of them were driven by electricity or steam. Herr Otto had invented an engine which ran on petrol. Thousands of people paid good money to see the model engine working away by itself. Henry saw it too. At once he imagined an engine like that, on wheels, driving a car or bicycle.

    He knew that he needed an electric spark to light the petrol and start the engine. But he did not know how to produce one. Henry was not the sort of man to let a thing like that stop him. He tried to work everything out for himself and he had to work at night since he had a full-time job with the Edison Electric Company in Detroit. The night before Christmas, 1893, Henry Ford was working in his shed. His first petrol engine was ready－he hoped－to run. Its cylinder was just an old piece of gas-pipe.

    "Lend me a hand , dear," he said to his wife. Clara was preparing for next day's Christmas party, but she wiped her hands and accepted the tin of petrol which her husband handed her. Henry pushed the starting-wheel while Clara put the petrol in. Nothing happened.

    "Try again," said Henry. The engine coughed. Flames shot out of it. And it ran.

    At last, in 1896, the first Ford car was completed. It was like a box placed on four big bicycle wheels. It had an engine with two cylinders and no brakes. If you wanted to go backwards, you had to get out and push. Henry sat on a seat on top, like the driver of a horse-drawn carriage, and steered with a sort of bar.

    At last the great moment came. Clara watched as Henry knocked down part of the shed wall and drove off into the rainy night. It was two o'clock in the morning and Henry had been working for forty-eight hours. He drove his quadricycle, with more noise than speed, through the empty streets. It worked! Indeed, it ran well for several years. But Henry soon lost interest. Already he was planning a bigger and better car.

    In 1898 his new car was finished. The motor car was starting to attract attention and people were beginning to see that "horseless carriages" were not just a joke. Henry Ford accepted a job with the Automobile Company. But the company failed and he started motor racing.

    Racing cars were just becoming popular, and there was money to be made－if you won. For Henry, it was not the money that attracted him, but the chance to test his cars－really test them－in difficult conditions.

    There were new problems all the time, but Henry found answers to them all. For example, he decided he wanted a plug in a porcelain jacket to send the spark through the cylinders of his engine. Who, in Detroit in 1900, could make that? Henry found a helpful dentist, who was used to working with porcelain, making false teeth. The result was the spark-plug as we know it today.

    Henry was determined to get his car ready for Detroit's first motor race on 10 October, 1901. Everyone expected a driver called Alexander Winton to win the race, who had driven his automobile in France, as well as all over the USA. But Henry Ford's lighter car was faster on the corners, and soon Winton was only a short distance ahead. Then Winton's engine began to smoke badly, and Henry went out in front－and stayed there, winning the race.

    In 1904 he went on to beat the world speed record, which at that time was 77.13 miles an hour. The conditions he did it in were not exactly perfect. He chose a frozen lake, from which farmers swept away the snow to make a track. They put ashes on the track, to stop the wheels from slipping. It was a very cold day, but as usual Henry had no windscreen. He was forty years old－old enough to know better. As the car picked up speed, it slid about on the ice. Sometimes it hit the piles of snow which stood like a wall on either side of the track. But he broke the record at 91.37 miles an hour.

    By now, businessmen were very keen to put their money into building Henry Ford's cars. A company called the Henry Ford Company was started in this way. But Henry himself did not much care about money. He soon dropped out of the business, and opened a car factory himself, with his own staff. He found a man called James Couzens, and together they worked out how to get the parts made in other factories, so that they could just do the actual building of the cars. They sold their first car in 1903. By 1904 the company was doing very well indeed with its Model A Ford.

    There were people in the business, who had lent Henry their money. They felt that Ford should be building the bigger and more expensive automobiles which were then in fashion. But Henry Ford was not interested in fashion. He dreamed about a car for the ordinary man. What he wanted to do was to produce cars in large quantities, all exactly the same, so that a part from one car would fit all the others. That would keep down the cost. As Henry Ford saw it, cheaper cars would lead to more people buying cars, which would lead to better roads. This, in turn, would lead to more people buying cars, which would lead to cheaper cars. He used to say to his workmen, "One day, you will be able to afford a car of your own."

    Henry and Couzens got control of the whole company, to Henry's joy, and in 1908 the first Model T Ford rolled off the production line. It was an ugly little car, but so simple that a child could drive it.

    Roads in those days were really rough; the Model T was built to go on those roads. The roads improved and the Model T remained popular, At first it cost 850 dollars, later only 260 dollars. This was at a time when most cars cost as much as a house and garden.

    Fifteen million Model T Fords were sold all over the world. It made Ford's fortune. But Henry Ford just put all the money back into the business. He was not anxious to get rich; what he wanted was to build automobiles.

    Henry Ford was the first man to organize the work of the assembly-line and in an efficient way. More and more Model Ts rolled off the production line. Henry was worried. He was making too much money. He actually said, "My profits are awful." He cut the price of his cars, but they sold in greater numbers than ever, and profits rose again.

    Then Henry Ford did something which was very unusual in those days. He increased his men's wages and improved their working conditions. Wages at the Ford factories rose from two dollars a day to five, and working hours were shortened from twelve hours a day to eight. The newspapers were full of this news and people crowded into Detroit in search of a job with the Ford Company.

    "We want to make men in this factory, as well as automobiles," said Henry Ford. "I believe I can do the world no greater service than to make jobs for more men, at higher rates of pay."

    Meanwhile, the Model T was selling all over the world. By 1919, the Ford factories were turning out 86 000 cars a month. By November 1922, the figure was 240 000. And he started to buy other businesses too.

    In 1927 the new Model A came on the scene. Crowds rushed to see it. Then, two years later, at the age of sixty-eight, when most men are enjoying a well-earned rest, Henry Ford did it again. He built the big V8 Ford. This powerful car, with its eight-cylinder engine, made sports-car racing popular again.

    Some people say he was the richest man in history. Some say he was the richest man in the world then. But Henry Ford made it possible for ordinary people to go from place to place easily and cheaply.

(1,497 words)             TOP

课文一

亨利·福特

    你自己也许并没有一部轿车，但你一定听说过福特汽车，那是轿车史与轿车工业领域最悠久的品牌之一。本篇课文将为您详尽介绍福特轿车之父的生平，以及这一闻名世界的汽车是如何问世的。

    亨利·福特于1863年出生于底特律附近的一个农场。他喜欢拆卸机器, 也喜欢把各种零件组装起来。他幻想能拥有种种机器，让工作变得轻松。他能用金属边角余料制造出不同的工具。

    年轻的亨利没有留在农场，承传父业，而是离家去了底特律，成为了一名发动机修理工。1885年的新年舞会上，亨利遇见了克拉拉·珍妮·布莱恩特，并爱上了她。亨利凭自己的双手为克拉拉·珍妮建造了一幢房屋。他们俩结了婚，并共同生活了五十九年。

    那时候，路上有少数“不用马拉的车辆”。不过，其中的大多数是由电力或蒸汽驱动的。此前，奥托先生已经发明出一种靠汽油驱动的引擎。成百上千的人掏出不少的钞票，为的是一睹这台能自行运转的引擎样机。亨利也看到了它。他立刻就想到，如果把这样的引擎安置到轮子上，它就可以驱动一辆轿车或是一部自行车。

    他知道他需要电火花来点燃汽油从而启动引擎。但是他不知道该如何制造电火花。亨利可不是那种在困难面前却步的人。他自己动手解决一切问题。由于在底特律爱迪生电力公司干着一份全职工作，所有的工作只能在夜间进行。1893年圣诞节前夜，他在自家棚子里忙碌着。他研制的第一台汽油引擎已一切就绪，准备发动。他也满心怀抱着成功的希望。这台引擎的汽缸是用一截煤气管改成的。

    “来帮我一把，亲爱的，”他对妻子说道。克拉拉正在准备第二天的圣诞聚会，但她马上擦干双手，接过丈夫递来的那罐汽油。克拉拉添加汽油，亨利则手推启动轮盘。却不见任何动静。

    “再试一次，”亨利说。引擎发出阵阵声响，火苗窜了起来。引擎开始工作了！

    1896年，第一辆福特汽车终于建造完成。看上去就象是一口箱子被放在了四个硕大的自行车轮子上。这辆车有一台引擎，两个汽缸，但没有刹车装置。要倒车的话，就得跳下车来用力推。亨利象马车夫一样坐在车顶的座位上，用简易的操纵杆驾驶这辆车。

    伟大的时刻终于到来了。克拉拉在一旁观看，亨利撞倒了试验棚的墙板，驱车驶入了雨夜之中。时间已是凌晨两点，亨利也已连续工作了四十八个钟头。他开着他那辆速度有限、噪音很大的四轮车，穿行在空荡荡的街道上。实验成功了！这辆车还真的正常运行了好几年。不过，亨利很快就对它失去了兴致。他已经在计划着要生产一种更大更好的汽车了。

    1898年，他的新车造好了。当时，机动车已经开始引起广泛关注。人们开始明白“不用马拉的车”不只是说着玩的。亨利·福特接受了“汽车公司”的一份职位，不过该公司生意告败，他开始参加赛车活动。

    当时，赛车刚刚流行起来。如果能一举夺冠，还可以赚大钱。对亨利来说，吸引他的倒不是金钱，而是这样他就有机会在严峻条件下检测——也可以说考验——-自己研发的汽车。

    新问题不停出现，而亨利总能找到症结，一一予以解决。举例而言，他需要一个置于瓷制外套中的塞子，以便火花导入汽缸。在1900年的底特律，谁能制造这样一个东西呢？亨利找到了一个牙医帮忙。此人用陶瓷作假牙，因而熟知陶瓷制作。结果便发明了我们今天熟知的火花塞。

    亨利决心把车造好，来参加 1910年10月举行的底特律首届汽车竞赛。大家都看好一个名叫亚历山大·温顿的车手，因为他不仅曾驾车畅游全美，还在法国开过车。不过亨利·福特的汽车自重更轻，弯道处的速度更快。不大工夫，亨利就紧紧追在温顿后面了。这时，温顿的引擎开始冒浓烟，亨利则赶超过去，并一路领先，赢得了这场比赛。

    1904年，他打破了当时一小时77.13英里的世界速度纪录。当天的行车条件并不十分理想。他选了一个封冻的湖作为赛址。农夫们扫清冰上的积雪，开辟出一条赛道，又在上面铺上灰，以防止车轮打滑。那是个非常寒冷的日子，但亨利一如既往，没用挡风玻璃。他已年届40——应该是不再冒险行事的年龄了。随着速度加快，汽车在冰面上四下打滑，好几次撞在墙壁般立在通道两侧的雪堆上。不过他仍以每小时91.37公里的速度打破了纪录。

    到了这个时候，已有很多商人热衷于投资福特的汽车。于是，一个名为“亨利·福特”的公司便挂牌成立了。亨利本人对金钱并不很在意。不久，他便脱离了这家公司，自己开办了一个汽车制造厂，招聘了自己的一批人马。他找到了一个名叫詹姆斯·库岑斯的人。二人共同努力，摸索出种种办法来在其他工厂加工零部件。这样，他们就可以专门组装汽车了。1903年，他们卖出了自己制造的第一部轿车。到了1904年，A型福特轿车销量极好，公司的业务也因此蒸蒸日上。

    公司的一些投资方认为，福特应该制造当时正走俏的较大、较昂贵的汽车。但是，亨利·福特对时髦不感兴趣。他追求的是面向普通人的轿车。他想要做到的是大批量生产一模一样的轿车。如此一来，一辆车上的零部件就可以适用于所有其他的车子，这样可以降低车的价格。依亨利·福特之见，轿车价格便宜些，会使得更多的人购买轿车。有车的人多了，又会促使道路建设的完善，而改善了的道路状况又会促使更多的人买轿车，从而使轿车的价格更为便宜。他常对他的工人们说：“总有一天，你会买得起属于你自己的轿车。”

    令亨利高兴的是，他和库岑斯逐渐获得了对整个公司的控制权。第一辆T型福特车也于1908年驶下了生产线。这种车型体积小，样子难看，但易于驾驶。就连小孩子开都没问题。 

    那个年月的道路着实不平，而T型轿车就是针对这种路况设计的。路况改善后，T型轿车仍然畅俏不衰。最初它的售价为850美元，后来只卖260美元。要知道，当时大多数轿车的定价相当于一幢花园洋房。

    在世界各地共售出一千五百万辆T型福特车。这为福特带来了滚滚财富。不过亨利·福特把所有的钱又重新投资到他的汽车企业中。他并不急于发财致富，他心里惦记的是制造汽车。

    亨利·福特是利用生产装配线高效率地组织生产活动的始作俑者。越来越多的T型车在生产线上装配完成。亨利着急起来——他赚的钱太多了。他甚至说过：“我的利润太大了。”他削减汽车价格。如此一来，销售量益发空前，利润又上升了。

    于是，亨利·福特做了一件在当时极为稀罕的事：他为员工增加薪金并改善他们的工作条件。福特属下各工厂的工资待遇从每日两美元增加到五美元，工作时数则从一天十二小时减少到八小时。各家报纸竞相报道这一新闻。人们纷纷涌入底特律，想在福特的工厂里谋得一份工作。

    “在这家工厂里，我们既要制造汽车，也要造就人，”亨利·福特说，“我相信，我能为这个世界提供的最好服务，莫过于为更多的人提供报酬更高的工作。”

    与此同时，T型轿车行销全球。到了1919年，福特工厂月产轿车86000辆。到了1922年11月，数字增至24万辆。福特开始并购其他产业。

    1927年，新的A型轿车问世。人们蜂拥而至，一睹其风采。两年之后，亨利·福特以68岁的高龄——大多数人到了这个年纪，便一心安享早年奋斗创就的舒适闲逸了——又一次一展身手。他造出了大车身的V8福特车。轿车的引擎有八只汽缸，马力强劲。在它的影响下，赛车运动卷土重来，再次风靡一时。

    有人说福特是历史上最富有的人，有人说他是那个年代最富有的人。但正是因为亨利· 福特，普通人的出行才变得如此轻松、便捷、又花费不多。

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Text 2

Thomas Edison

    Thomas Edison was born in 1847, the seventh child of Sam and Nancy Edison. His head was so large that everyone thought his brain must have been damaged at birth. He was often ill and, even when he was well, he seemed both naughty and stupid.　

    One day in 1853, Sam Edison was seen beating little Tom in front of his neighbors. The child had burnt down his father's chicken house.

"I just made a little fire," he said, "just to see what it would do."

    The boy seemed to have no common sense. "I can make nothing of him," said Sam in disgust.

    But, as soon as he could talk, the boy began to ask questions, "Why is that chicken sitting on her eggs, Mother?"

  "To keep them warm, and to make them come out of their shells."

  Later the boy was found sitting on a nest of eggs, hoping to produce some chickens himself.
    In 1855 Tom went to school, but he did not stay long. He used to say, "I never got along at school. I was always at the bottom of my class." Tom ran out of the school house and never returned. He got the rest of his education from his mother.

    Nancy Edison succeeded where the school had failed. She introduced him to literature, reading from Shakespeare and Dickens. She showed him that history could be exciting. Soon Tom was a great reader.

    When he was ten, Nancy showed him his first science book. After that, Tom spent all his pocket money on things for his experiments. Soon he had a large collection of bottles and jars, all marked POISON to make sure none touched them.

    Tom was deeply interested in the telegraph which had been invented just before he was born. By the time he was eleven , he had set up a home-made telegraph and was practicing the Morse Code.

    He needed more money for his experiments, so he and his friend grew vegetables to sell. Meanwhile the railway came to town and twelve-year-old Tom got a job selling newspapers on the train.

    Suddenly he became deaf. Probably the deafness was caused by an illness he had had as a child. In any case, he could soon hear only a little with one ear, and not at all with the other. He could hear best when people shouted to each other above the noise of the train.

    His deafness made him lonelier and quieter than before. He turned to books and began to educate himself. He found a public library, started with the first book on the first shelf, and read his way through the whole library.

    He could still hear the Morse on the telegraph, and background noise did not disturb him as much as it did people with normal hearing. He decided that he wanted to become a telegraph operator－but how could he afford to pay for the training?

    Then, one day, a station-manager's small son wandered onto the railway track. Tom Edison rushed out and rescued the child. His grateful father, who was a trained telegraph operator, offered to teach fifteen-year-old Tom to become an operator too. By the winter of 1862, he had learnt all that the station-manager could teach him, and he returned to Port Huron to be the town's telegraph operator in a little office at the back of a book shop.

    Soon people were complaining that the young operator was doing experiments and reading the shop's books in between sending and receiving messages. The telegraph manager wondered why, although young Edison always gave the "ready" signal at the right times, he was often difficult to reach on the telegraph. At last he discovered that the young operator had made a small machine to send the "ready" signal at fixed times, while Edison slept for a while! Edison used to stop sending Morse in order to write down any idea that came into his head. But he was such a good operator－by the time he was nineteen he was winning competitions for speed－that everyone always forgave him.
    But he wasn't willing to spend his life becoming the fastest telegraph operator in the world. When he was twenty-one he read about Michael Faraday's experiments in electricity. That was an important day for him. "I am now twenty-one", he wrote. "Can I get as much done as he did? I have got so much to do, and life is so short. I must hurry." And he decided to become an inventor.

    By August 1869 Edison had taken out a patent on a telegraph which could print out messages automatically. This was his first important invention. The telegraph remained his first great love. For a long time all his inventions had to do with telegraphy.

    He accepted a number of jobs from big companies. Western Union, the big telegraph company, asked Edison to produce an improved stock ticker for them. Edison did not hesitate. He hired fifty workmen, all with quick, light fingers. He made them work hard, but he worked hardest of all. If he was pleased with his men he gave them a holiday and they all went fishing. When a particularly difficult problem came up, Edison locked himself and half a dozen of his best men in the laboratory until they had solved the problem. Sometimes the men's wives came and beat on the door. "At times like this," confessed Edison, "my deafness is an advantage."
    Meanwhile he found time to marry a pretty sixteen-year-old Sunday School teacher called Mary Stilwell. Edison spent their wedding night in the factory, working on a difficult problem!
    Mary did not understand this husband of hers. He could carry in his head, for days on end, the plan of a new invention, until he had time to put it down on paper. She watched how he worked, forgetting everything but the job he was doing. But she loved him dearly, and brought up their three children almost without his help, for Edison hardly ever had time to play with them.
    At last, tired of city life, Edison built a big new factory, a laboratory and several homes at Menlo Park, New Jersey. Menlo Park was in the country but while Edison was there it was never peaceful.
    About this time Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both invented telephones. Western Union called in Edison to see if he could develop a better instrument, without copying those for which the other men held patents. It was a very difficult thing for a deaf man to do. Edison had to hold the instrument in his teeth and "hear" the sound through the bones of his head.

    But he succeeded and, in 1877, he took out a patent for a "Speaking Telegraph Transmitter". Working without stopping for several days at a time, he developed an improved instrument, which contained the world's first microphone. Western Union paid Edison a hundred thousand dollars for that invention.

    Edison's private life at Menlo Park did have its happy, peaceful moments. Once he set up a microphone at a concert hall, and connected it to their home, so that Mary could enjoy the music. And he made a wonderful talking doll for his children, long before the days of the phonograph.

    Edison was always deeply interested in the human voice and how it was produced. He wondered if it was possible to record voices. There must be some way. He sat down and made a little drawing, then passed it to one of his workmen.

    "Make it, and we'll see," said the inventor. When the little instrument was finished, it looked like a cylinder with a small microphone at each end. Edison carefully fixed a sheet of tin foil around the cylinder. He turned a handle, and the cylinder, with its sheet of tin foil , went round while he shouted these words into the microphones:

    "Mary had a little lamb,

    As pure and white as snow,

    And everywhere that Mary went,

    The lamb was sure to go."

    A few moments later Edison turned the handle again. Out of the odd little instrument came his own voice, saying the poem. Everyone was astonished. They could hear every word.

    He showed the phonograph to the Scientific American magazine. The next day the newspapers were full of this wonderful new invention. People came to Menlo Park from far and near. Edison was invited to the White House to show his invention to the president.

    Edison kept on inventing for more than sixty years. Most famous people are remembered for one thing. Henry Ford made the motor car cheap enough for the ordinary family to buy. John Logie Baird invented the first television set . But what made Edison's reputation? The phonograph was only one of the great inventions he made. There were also electric light, the early cinema, the improved telephones and many others. And, when the great man died, it was suggested that all the electric power in the country should be turned off for a short time in his memory. But by this time the country depended so much on electricity that it was not possible to turn it off completely. Instead, for a moment, on the day they buried Thomas Alva Edison, all the lights in the country burned low.

(1,558 words)            TOP

课文二

托马斯·爱迪生

    托马斯·爱迪生出生于1847年，是萨姆与南希·爱迪生夫妇的第七个孩子。他的脑袋很大，以至人人都以为他的大脑一定在出生时受了损伤。他经常生病。即使不生病时，他也显得既淘气又愚笨。

   1813年的一天，萨姆·爱迪生当着众多邻居的面揍了小汤姆。这孩子将爸爸的鸡舍付之一炬。

    “我只是点了一小把火，”这孩子说道：“只是想看看会有什么结果。”

    他似乎缺乏常识。“我简直拿他没办法，”萨姆恼恨地说道。

    可是，一旦他又能说话了，他就会开始提问题。“妈妈，为什么那只鸡趴在它的鸡蛋上呢？”

    “好保持鸡蛋暖和，好让小鸡出壳呀。”

    稍后，人们发现小男孩趴在一窝鸡蛋上，希望自己也能孵出一些小鸡仔儿来。

    1855年汤姆上学了，但是并没呆久。他经常回忆道，“我在学校从来学得不好，总是班上最后一名。”汤姆逃离学校后再也没有重返课堂。他余下的教育是从母亲那里获得的。

    学校没能做到的事情南希成功地做到了。她引导汤姆接触文学作品，阅读莎士比亚和狄更斯的著作。她让他懂得，学习历史也可能是激动人心的一件事。很快，汤姆便成了一个读书爱好者。

    汤姆十岁那年，南希向他展示了他平生之中的第一本科普读物。这以后，汤姆把自己所有的零用钱都花在了他的那些实验用品上。很快，他就拥有了一大堆瓶瓶罐罐，上面全都标着“有毒”，以防止他人触碰。

    电报技术是在汤姆出生前不久问世的。汤姆对它深感兴趣。等到了十一岁时，他已经装配起一个简易电报机，并时常练习摩尔斯电码。


    为了做实验，他需要更多的钱。于是他和朋友们一起种菜来卖。在这期间，铁路修通到了城里，十二岁的汤姆得到了一份在火车上卖报的活儿。


    他耳朵突然聋了。这很可能是他幼年时一场疾病留下的。不管是什么引起的，反正不久他便只能依靠一只耳朵残留的一点儿听力辨音，另一只耳朵则完全丧失了听力。当人们为了盖过火车的噪音而相互大声嚷嚷时，他的耳朵才听得最清楚。

    失聪使得他比从前更孤独，更不爱说话。他转而潜心读书并开始自学。他找到了一家公共图书馆，从第一排架子上的第一本书看起，一直把整个图书馆的书全部读完。

    电报机里的摩尔斯电码他还能听得见。背景噪音对正常人会造成干扰，对他却没什么影响。他决定要当一名电报员——可是他怎么出得起培训费呢？

    后来，有一天，一个铁路站长的小儿子遛跶上了铁轨，托马斯·爱迪生冲出来救了这孩子一命。那位感激不尽的父亲自己就是一个训练有素的电报员，他主动提出向十五岁的汤姆传授技艺，让他也成为一名电报员。到了1862年的冬天，爱迪生已经把铁路站长能教给他的东西全部学到了手，并返回波特·休伦，成了这个城镇的电报员。他那小小的事务所就位于一家书店的后面。

    不久，人们便提出意见，说这个年轻的报务员总在接发电文的间隙做各种实验，或阅读那家书店里的书籍。电报所所长则心里纳闷：为什么这位年轻的爱迪生总能准时发出“准备接收”的讯号，你却很难通过电报联系到他本人呢？最后他发现了一个秘密：这个年轻的报务员研制了一个小小的装置，用以在固定时间发送“准备接受”的讯号，而他本人则可在此期间小睡片刻。爱迪生还常常在电码发送中途停下，好把脑子里冒出的想法记录下来。不过他的业务水平如此之高（到了十九岁那年他常常在发报速度竞赛中获奖），以至于大家总是宽宥他。

    但是他可不愿一生就致力于如何成为世界上速度最快的报务员。二十一岁时，他读到迈克尔·法拉第在电学方面进行的实验。那一天对他来说是一个重要的日子。“我现在已经二十一岁了，”他写道：“我能不能做出和他一样多的事情来呢？我有这么多的事情要去做，生命却又如此短暂。我必须快马加鞭。”他决心要成为一个发明家。

    到了1869年8月时，爱迪生已经获得了一项电报技术专利。通过这项技术，电文能被自动打印出来。这是他的第一项有重要意义的发明。在后来的岁月中，电报一直是他的至爱。在很长的一段时间里，他的所有发明都与电报有关。

    他在多家大公司任职。“西部联盟”是一家规模庞大的电报公司。它请爱迪生设计一种更完善的股票行情自动收录仪。爱迪生立即行动。他雇了五十个人手，个个擅长打字。他吩咐他们努力干活，而他自己则是所有人中工作最勤奋的那一个。如果他对手下人的工作感到满意，便会给他们放假，一干人等都去钓鱼。碰到了某个特别棘手的难题，爱迪生就把自己和手下最棒的六、七个人关在实验室里，直到问题解决。有时侯这些人的妻子会来敲门。“在这样的时候，”爱迪生坦承道，“我的耳聋就成了一大优势。”

    与此同时，他挤出时间娶了一个漂亮的十六岁少女。她叫玛丽·斯蒂威尔，是一位主日学校教师。新婚之夜，为了解决一个难题，爱迪生竟整晚留在了工场里！

    玛丽简直弄不懂她的这位丈夫。他会把一项新发明的构想一连几天保存在脑子里，直到有时间把它记录下来。她观察他怎样工作：除了手头的工作，其它一切都忘到九霄云外。但她深爱着他，自己一手带大了他们的三个孩子，不要他操一点儿心。爱迪生简直就没有时间跟孩子们一起玩耍。

    后来，爱迪生厌倦了城市生活，就在新泽西州一个叫门罗园的地方新建了一家大工厂、一座实验室和几处住所。门罗园地处乡村，但是自从爱迪生搬到那儿，它就一刻也不得清静了。

    也就是这个时候，艾尔沙·格雷与亚历山大·格雷汉·贝尔两人都发明了电话。“西部联盟”把爱迪生召去，想知道他是否能研制出一种更好的电话机，又不模仿那两人已获专利的样本。这对一个聋子来说可是一桩非常艰难的事情。爱迪生不得不用牙齿咬住机子，通过他头部的骨头来“聆听”那声音。

    但是，他成功了，并于1877年获得了“语音电报传送机”发明专利。接下来，他一连几天马不停蹄地攻关，又研制出一种更好的机型。这种机型内含世界上第一台麦克风。“西部联盟“为这项发明付给爱迪生十万美金。

    爱迪生在门罗园的家庭生活确实也有幸福、安宁的时刻。有一次，他在一个音乐厅里设置了一个麦克风，并把它联接到自己家里，让玛丽足不出户地欣赏音乐。他还为孩子们制造了一个绝妙的、会说话的玩偶，而那时，留声机还远未问世。

    爱迪生总是对人类的声音以及发音过程深感兴趣。他琢磨着是否有可能把人的各种声音记录下来。应该是有办法的。他坐下来，画了一小张图，然后把它递给了一个手下工作人员。

    “把它做出来，看看会怎么样，”这个发明家说道。这台小小的仪器做好后，看上去象一个两头各安放了一个微型麦克风的圆柱体。爱迪生小心翼翼地给这个圆柱体包裹上一层锡箔。他开始转动一个摇柄，那个圆柱体和它上面那层锡箔便旋转起来。与此同时，他大声对着麦克风朗读道：
    “玛丽有只小羊羔，
    冰清玉洁雪样白，
    不论玛丽亚到哪儿，
    小羊定要跟脚边儿。”

    过了一会儿，爱迪生又摇动起手柄来。从这怪模怪样的小机器里传出了他自己的声音，念的正是那首歌谣。大家全都惊讶不已。每个字他们都听得真真切切。

    他把照片送给《美国科学》杂志看。第二天，报纸上全是对这一奇妙发明的报道。人们从四面八方前来门罗园拜访。爱迪生被邀请到白宫向总统展示他的新发明。

    在长达六十多年的时间里，爱迪生坚持不懈地从事着发明创造。大多数的著名人物是因为一样东西而为后人铭记。亨利·福特让汽车走入了寻常百姓家。约翰·洛基·贝尔德发明了第一台电视机。构筑爱迪生赫赫大名的是什么呢？留声机只是他多项伟大发明之一。其它的发明还包括电灯、早期电影、改进了的电话，等等，等等。因此，当这位伟人逝世时，有人提议全美国短暂停电以示哀悼。然而，此时美国的一切已如此依赖于电力来运作，以至于完全停电是根本不可能的。于是，在托马斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生下葬的那一天，全国所有的电灯都黯淡了一小会儿。

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