8 Chapter 7 Always Inventing

Chapter 7 Always Inventing Tom was a man who never ran out of ideas. Although Tom was hard of hearing, he never lost his hearing completely. He didn't let it become a problem, even when his hearing got worse as he got older. In fact, he said it was a good thing because he could ignore noise swirling around him. He could concentrate on what was important to him. At one point Tom was told that an operation might cure his deafness. He didn't want it. And he was not interested in developing a hearing aid.

汤姆是个创意层出不穷的人。 虽然汤姆听力不好，但他从未完全丧失听力。 他没有让它成为一个问题，即使随着年龄的增长，他的听力越来越差。 事实上，他说这是一件好事，因为他可以忽略周围的噪音。 他可以专注于对他重要的事情。 有一次，汤姆被告知手术可能治愈他的耳聋。 他不想要。他对开发助听器不感兴趣。

Tom found ways to work around his problem. He managed to "listen" to piano players trying out for his phonograph recordings by biting a metal plate attached to the piano. This allowed him to "hear" the music through the vibrations traveling through his jawbone. Was he "listening" through his teeth? So much is known about Tom's work because of the records he kept. Over his seventy years of inventing, he filled four thousand notebooks and wrote and drew over three million notes, letters, and sketches.

汤姆找到了解决问题的方法。 他咬着钢琴上的一块金属板，成功地“听”到了钢琴演奏者尝试录制他的留声机唱片的声音。 这使得他可以通过振动穿过他的颚骨来“听到”音乐。 他是不是隔着牙在“听”? 由于汤姆保存的记录，人们对他的工作了解得如此之多。 在他70年的发明生涯中，他填满了4000本笔记本，写下并画了300多万张笔记、信件和草图。

Not all of Tom's ideas were successes. In 1891 he bought a mine in northwestern New Jersey. He wanted to find a way to produce low-grade iron ore by separating it from rock and sand. But after ten years he had to give up when rich deposits of high-grade iron ore were found in Minnesota. By this time Tom had lost millions of dollars.

汤姆的想法并非都成功。 1891年，他在新泽西西北部买了一个矿场。 他想找到一种从岩石和沙子中分离出低品位铁矿石的方法。 但十年后，他不得不放弃，因为在明尼苏达州发现了丰富的高品位铁矿石矿藏。 到这个时候，汤姆已经损失了几百万美元。

Still, Tom's experience with mining led him to another business—cement. He came up with a way to pour a cement house in just six hours using molds and machinery that he developed in his mining business. His cement was used to build New York's Yankee Stadium and the Panama Canal.

尽管如此，汤姆在采矿方面的经验让他进入了另一个行业——水泥行业。 他想出了一种方法，利用他在采矿业务中开发的模具和机器，在6小时内浇筑一座水泥房。 他的水泥被用来建造纽约的洋基体育场和巴拿马运河。

Now it was the turn of the century. Automobiles were about to burst on the scene. Tom was convinced that an electric car would be the best car for the future. He set out to make a battery to run a car on electricity. He knew it would be cleaner than the gas that other inventors were trying. But he had to make a battery that would store enough electricity to run a car for a very long time. It also had to be cheap enough to make. HENRY FORD

现在是世纪之交。 汽车即将在现场爆炸。 汤姆确信电动汽车将是未来最好的汽车。 他着手制造一种用电驱动汽车的电池。 他知道这将比其他发明家正在尝试的气体更清洁。 但他必须制造一种电池，能够储存足够的电力，使汽车长时间运行。 它还必须足够便宜才能制造出来。 亨利•福特

HENRY FORD WAS THE FIRST TO MAKE A CAR CHEAP ENOUGH FOR MOST AMERICANS TO BUY. IN 1908, HIS MOST POPULAR CAR, THE MODEL T, COST FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS, AND HE HAD MORE ORDERS THAN HE COULD FILL. WITHIN TWO YEARS FORD CAME UP WITH HIS "ASSEMBLY LINE." WORKERS ASSEMBLED, OR PUT TOGETHER, EACH CAR. EACH MAN WORKED ON ONE PART ONLY. AS THE CAR TRAVELED ALONG A MOVING

亨利·福特是第一个制造出能让大多数美国人买得起的廉价汽车的人。 1908年，他最受欢迎的t型车售价500美元，而他的订单多得无法完成。 两年内，福特提出了他的“装配线”。 工人们组装每辆汽车。 每个人只做一部分工作。 当汽车沿着一个移动