The entire scientific community or much of it was working on that, on that issue, with no success, Thomas Edison being no exception.
整个科学界都在研究这一课题,但一无所获,爱迪生也不例外
A journalist from one of the local papers came to Thomas Edison to interview.
当地报纸的一名记者前去采访爱迪生
He was already famous by then, he invented many things.
他当时已经非常有名了,发明了很多东西
And they were talking about various things and then they got to talk about the light bulb.
他们谈了各种话题,然后开始讲灯泡问题
And the journalist said to Edison, "Mr. Edison, you've been working on the light bulb for many years.
那个记者对爱迪生说:“爱迪生先生您致力于灯泡研究许多年了
The rest of the scientific community has been working on it, to no avail."
整个科学界都在进行相同研究,但毫无所获”
Now at that point Thomas Edison had conducted 5000 experiments,
当时爱迪生已经进行了5000次实验
so, and the journalist knew that so he told Edison, "Mr. Edison, you've conducted 5000 experiments, and you failed 5000 times. Give it up."
这位记者也知道,于是他对爱迪生说:“爱迪生先生,您已经进行了5000次实验,失败了5000次,放弃吧”
Now Thomas Edison, some of you may know was also hard of hearing, in fact one of his patents was a hearing aid.
你们可能知道,爱迪生听力不好,事实上,他有一项专利就是助听器
So he said to the journalist, " Excuse me, what did you say?"
所以他对记者说"你说什么
The journalist said, "well, I said you failed 5000 times, give it up."
那个记者重复:“我说你失败了5000次,放弃吧”
So Edison responded, "I didn't fail 5000 times.
爱迪生回答"我没有失败5000次
I succeeded 5000 times.
是成功了5000次
I succeeded in showing what doesn't work."
我成功证明了哪些方法行不通