3 Chapter 2 Young Inventor

Chapter 2 Young Inventor Al was twelve when his father helped him get a job on the Grand Trunk Railroad. The train traveled back and forth between Port Huron and Detroit, Michigan, every day.

艾尔十二岁时，他的父亲帮他在大干线铁路找到了一份工作。 火车每天往返于休伦港和密歇根州的底特律之间。

Al was a newsboy. Along with other boys, he sold newspapers, magazines, and snacks like candy and peanuts or sandwiches. The train didn't have a dining car. The passengers had to bring their own food or buy it from the boys. The train left Port Huron at seven in the morning and returned at nine in the evening. It was a three-hour journey each way. Al had lots of time in Detroit before the trip back home. Al was not a boy to sit around and do nothing. He spent time at the library reading, mostly science books. He also began to dream up other ways to make money on the train. He bought things from the Detroit market and sold them to train riders on the way home to Port Huron. In

艾尔是个报童。他和其他男孩一起卖报纸、杂志和糖果、花生或三明治之类的零食。 火车上没有餐车。 乘客们必须自己带食物，或者从男孩那里买。 火车早上7点离开休伦港，晚上9点返回。 单程需要三个小时。 在回家之前，艾尔在底特律待了很长时间。 阿尔不是一个无所事事的孩子。 他花时间在图书馆读书，主要是科学书籍。 他也开始幻想在火车上赚钱的其他方法。 他从底特律市场买东西，然后在回家休伦港的火车上卖给乘客。 在

Port Huron he took vegetables from his family's farm and sold them at the station. Then in Detroit he noticed that a newspaper was throwing out ink, paper, and old pieces of type. Al bought a small printing press and started a weekly newspaper. He called it the Grand Trunk Herald. A subscription cost eight cents a month. He sold about two hundred copies a week. People liked it because it carried local news, train schedules, ads—and gossip. Al set up his printing press right there in the baggage car on the train. He also set up a simple lab. He wrote. He printed. He did experiments. The conductor didn't mind. Then one day, one of his chemical mixtures caught fire. The conductor did mind now! He was

在休伦港，他从家里的农场里拿蔬菜，在车站卖。 后来在底特律，他注意到一家报纸正在扔掉墨水、纸张和旧铅字。 艾尔买了一台小型印刷机，创办了一份周报。 他称之为《大主干先驱报》。 订阅费是每月8美分。 他一周大约卖出200本。 人们喜欢它，因为它刊登当地新闻、火车时刻表、广告和八卦。 艾尔就在火车的行李车厢里安装了他的印刷机。 他还建立了一个简单的实验室。 他写道。他打印出来。他做实验。 列车员并不介意。 有一天，他的一种化学混合物着火了。 列车长现在真的介意了!他是

really angry with Al. He picked him up and threw him off the train along with all his stuff. But Al didn't lose his job as a newsboy. He just couldn't have a lab on the train anymore. In 1861, the Civil War broke out between the North and the South. Michigan was on the side of the North, the side of the president, Abraham Lincoln. People were particularly anxious for news. It was not long before Al saw a way to sell even more newspapers. He got a telegraph operator in Detroit to wire the war news of that day ahead to the stations on the way to Port Huron. Operators wrote the news on a chalkboard at the station. By the time the train arrived, people had heard what was happening, and they wanted to read more about the events of the day in the

他真的很生艾尔的气，他把他和他所有的东西一起扔下了火车。 但阿尔并没有丢掉报童的工作。 他不能再在火车上开实验室了。 1861年，南北战争爆发。 密歇根站在北方一边，站在亚伯拉罕·林肯总统一边。 人们特别渴望得到消息。 没过多久，艾尔就想到了一个卖更多报纸的办法。 他让底特律的一名电报员提前把当天的战事消息发送到前往休伦港的车站。 接线员把消息写在车站的黑板上。 当火车到达时，人们已经听说了发生的事情，他们想要更多地了解当天的事件

newspaper. Al usually sold about a hundred papers. On the day when the sad news came of the terrible battle at Shiloh, Tennessee, where more than 23,000 men were killed or wounded, he sold one thousand newspapers. Al was a teenager now, and he decided he wanted to be called Tom. From then on he was known as Tom or Thomas. One day Tom saw a train about to hit the stationmaster's three-year-old son, Jimmy. He dashed onto the tracks and pulled him to safety. As thanks, the stationmaster offered to teach Tom about telegraphy. Tom was thrilled. He already knew Morse code. Here was a chance to learn how to become a real telegraph operator.

报纸。艾尔通常卖出大约一百份报纸。 在田纳西州夏伊洛发生了一场可怕的战斗，超过23000人阵亡或受伤，这一令人悲伤的消息传来的那天，他卖出了1000份报纸。 阿尔现在已经是一个十几岁的孩子了，他决定要叫汤姆。 从那时起，他被称为汤姆或托马斯。 一天，汤姆看见一列火车即将撞上站长三岁的儿子吉米。 他冲到铁轨上，把他拉到安全的地方。 作为感谢，站长主动提出教汤姆学电报。 汤姆很激动。他已经知道摩尔斯电码了。 这是一个学习如何成为一名真正的电报员的机会。

By now telegrams were not only sent from railroad stations, but from offices owned by a company called Western Union. Tom worked hard and soon he had a new job. He was just sixteen when he went to work for Western Union in Port Huron. Later, Tom took jobs with Western Union in other cities. He went from one place to the next. He was getting faster and faster at sending and receiving messages. A good telegrapher could send or receive about forty-five words a minute. Tom wanted to be the best. He practiced at night in his room. He liked to tap out plays, like Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. One day a friend told Tom about a job at Western Union in Boston, Massachusetts. It was

这时，电报不仅从火车站发出，而且从西联汇款公司的办公室发出。 汤姆工作努力，很快就找到了一份新工作。 他到休伦港的西联汇款公司工作时才16岁。 后来，汤姆在其他城市的西联汇款公司工作。 他从一个地方到另一个地方。 他收发信息的速度越来越快了。 一个好的电报员每分钟能收发45个单词。 汤姆想成为最好的。 他晚上在自己的房间里练习。 他喜欢临摹戏剧，比如威廉·莎士比亚的《哈姆雷特》。 一天，一位朋友告诉汤姆在马萨诸塞州波士顿的西联汇款公司有一份工作。 这是