特别广播英语第 229 课：The Edison Effect 大发明家──爱迪生-2

He could have had an operation, but he refused. He insisted that being deaf helped him concentrate on his experiments. 他本可以接受手术治疗，但他拒绝了，因为他坚信听觉的丧失可以让他更专心地做实验。

Thomas Edison's first invention was the automatic telegraph repeater. 电报自动转发器是托马斯·爱迪生的第一个发明。

He was already an expert on the telegraph before he came up with a gadget that sent telegraph signals between unmanned stations. 他发明的这种装置，用于在无人看管的两站之间传输电报信号，在此项发明前，爱迪生就已经是位电报专家了。

Thanks to Edison, people were then able to send several telegraph messages simultaneously . 幸亏有爱迪生，我们才能在同一时间传送好几封电报讯息。

Next came the electric vote recorder. It made voting quicker and more accurate, yet no one wanted to buy it. 接下来的电子记票器让统计票数的速度更快、更准确，但却没有人要买。

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. 之后，爱迪生转而进行股票行情收录器的研究，他把收录器作了改进并将该项专利以四万美元卖出。

In his late twenties, Edison built an "invention factory" where he and his business partners could dedicate all their time to inventing. 近三十岁时，爱迪生盖了一座“发明工厂”，可让他和他的同事专心致力于发明工作。