专八人文知识需知的美国名人--托马斯·爱迪生

专八人文知识需知的美国名人--托马斯·爱迪生

　　英语专八人文知识涵盖的知识面较广，考生们需要平时多积累小常识，这样在专八考试中才能游刃有余，新东方在线整理了专八人文知识需知的美国名人系列知识点供考生们参考。

　　爱迪生(1847～1931)是举世闻名的美国电学家和发明家，被誉为“世界发明大王”。他除了在留声机、电灯、电话、电报、电影等方面的发明和贡献以外，在矿业、建筑业、化工等领域也有不少著名的创造和真知灼见。爱迪生一生共有约两千项创造发明，为人类的文明和进步作出了巨大的贡献。 爱迪生同时也是一位伟大的企业家，1879年，爱迪生创办了“爱迪生电力照明公司”，1880年，白炽灯上市销售，1890年，爱迪生已经将其各种业务组建成为爱迪生通用电气公司。1891年，爱迪生的细灯丝、高真空白炽灯泡获得专利。1892年，汤姆?休斯顿公司与爱迪生电力照明公司合并成立了通用电气公司，开始了通用电气在电气领域长达一个世纪的统治地位。

　　Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor, scientistand businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world,including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric lightbulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (now Edison, New Jersey) by a newspaper reporter, hewas one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to theprocess of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial researchlaboratory.

　　Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in hisname, as well as many patents in United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited withnumerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular,telecommunications. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as atelegraph operator. Edison originated the concept and implementation of electric-power generationand distribution to homes, businesses, and factories – a crucial development in the modernindustrialized world. His first power station was on Manhattan Island, New York.

　　Early life

　　Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventhand last child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. (1804–1896, born in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia,Canada) and Nancy Matthews Elliott (1810–1871). He considered himself to be of Dutch ancestry.In school, the young Edison's mind often wandered, and his teacher, the Reverend Engle, wasoverheard calling him "addled". This ended Edison's three months of official schooling. Edisonrecalled later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I hadsomething to live for, someone I must not disappoint." His mother homeschooled him. Much of hiseducation came from reading R.G. Parker's School of Natural Philosophy and The Cooper Union.Edison developed hearing problems at an early age. The cause of his deafness has been attributedto a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle ear infections.

　　Around the middle of his career Edison attributed the hearing impairment to being struck on theears by a train conductor when his chemical laboratory in a boxcar caught fire and he was thrownoff the train in Smiths Creek, Michigan, along with his apparatus and chemicals. In his later years hemodified the story to say the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a movingtrain, lifted him by the ears. Edison's family was forced to move to Port Huron, Michigan, when therailroad bypassed Milan in 1854, but his life there was bittersweet. He sold candy and newspaperson trains running from Port Huron to Detroit, and he sold vegetables to supplement his income.This began Edison's long streak of entrepreneurial ventures as he discovered his talents as abusinessman. These talents eventually led him to found 14 companies, including General Electric,which is still in existence and is the largest publicly traded company in the world.

　　Honors and awards given to Edison

　　The President of the Third French Republic, Jules Grévy, on the recommendation of his Minister ofForeign Affairs Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire and with the presentations of the Minister of Posts andTelegraphs Louis Cochery, designated Edison with the distinction of an 'Officeer of the Legion ofHonour' (Légion d'honneur) by decree on November 10, 1881;In 1983, the United StatesCongress, pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 140 (Public Law 97—198), designated February 11,Edison's birthday, as National Inventor's Day.

　　In 1887, Edison won the Matteucci Medal. In 1890, he was elected a member of the Royal SwedishAcademy of Sciences.

　　Edison was ranked thirty-fifth on Michael H. Hart's 1978 book The 100, a list of the mostinfluential figures in history. Life magazine (USA), in a special double issue in 1997, placed Edisonfirst in the list of the "100 Most Important People in the Last 1000 Years", noting that the light bulbhe promoted "lit up the world". In the 2005 television series The Greatest American, he was votedby viewers as the fifteenth-greatest.

　　In 2008, Edison was inducted in the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

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