How inventions change history (for better and for worse) - Kenneth C. Davis

Transcriber: tom carter Reviewer: Bedirhan Cinar

翻译人员: Sonia WANG 校对人员: Sherry Chen

This is the story of an invention that changed the world.

这是一个发明改变世界的故事

Imagine a machine that could cut 10 hours of work down to one.

假想有这样一个机器，它可以用一小时完成十小时的工作

A machine so efficient that it would free up people to do other things,

这个机器如此高效，让人们有时间去做其他的事情

kind of like the personal computer.

有点像是个人电脑

But the machine I'm going to tell you about did none of this.

但这跟我将要给大家介绍的机器截然不同

In fact, it accomplished just the opposite.

事实上，它的作用恰恰相反

In the late 1700s, just as America was getting on its feet as a republic under the new U.S Constitution,

18世纪后期，当美国人在新宪法下成立共和国时

slavery was a tragic American fact of life.

奴隶制是当时在美国存在的一个惨痛现实

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both became President while owning slaves,

当乔治·华盛顿和汤姆斯·艾佛森成为总统的时候 他们都仍拥有奴隶

knowing that this peculiar institution contradicted the ideals and principles for which they fought a revolution.

他们明知这个制度和他们改革提倡的理想和准则大相径庭

But both men believed that slavery was going to die out as the 19th century dawned,

但这两位总统都相信奴隶制会在19世纪来临之际逐渐消失

They were, of course, tragically mistaken.

很遗憾，他们错了

The reason was an invention,

原因在于一项发明

a machine they probably told you about in elementary school:

一项你很有可能在小学就学到过的机器

Mr. Eli Whitney's cotton gin.

埃里·惠特尼的轧棉机

A Yale graduate, 28-year-old Whitney had come to South Carolina to work as a tutor in 1793.

惠特尼毕业于耶鲁大学，1793年，28岁的他来到南卡罗莱纳州做助教

Supposedly he was told by some local planters about the difficulty of cleaning cotton.

据称，他从当地种植园主那里听说了清理棉花的麻烦

Separating the seeds from the cotton lint was tedious and time consuming.

将棉籽和棉绒分开是一项单调又费时的工作

Working by hand, a slave could clean about a pound of cotton a day.

一个奴隶一天大概可手工清理一磅棉花

But the Industrial Revolution was underway,

但工业革命蓄势待发

and the demand was increasing.

对棉花的需求也大幅提高

Large mills in Great Britain and New England were hungry for cotton to mass produce cloth.

大不列颠和新英格兰的大工厂急需棉花进行大规模织布

As the story was told, Whitney had a "eureka moment" and invented the gin, short for engine.

据说，惠特尼灵光一现，发明了轧棉机，脱棉籽机器的简称

The truth is that the cotton gin already existed for centuries in small but inefficient forms.

事实上，轧棉机已经存在好几百年了，只是比较小，效率比较低

In 1794, Whitney simply improved upon the existing gins and then patented his "invention":

1794年，惠特尼对已有的轧棉机稍加改进，并为他的“发明”申请了专利

a small machine that employed a set of cones that could separate seeds from lint mechanically,

这个小小轧棉机运用几个圆锥形零件，用机械的方法将棉籽和棉绒分开

as a crank was turned.

只需转动手柄即可

With it, a single worker could eventually clean from 300 to one thousand pounds of cotton a day.

有了它，一个工人可将日产量逐渐提高到300到1000磅

In 1790, about 3,000 bales of cotton were produced in America each year.

到了1790年，每年美国的棉花产量可达3000捆

A bale was equal to about 500 pounds.

一捆大约为500磅

By 1801, with the spread of the cotton gin,

1801年，随着轧棉机的普及

cotton production grew to 100 thousand bales a year.

年产量增长到10万捆

After the destructions of the War of 1812,

1812年战争结束后 （1812年战争：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warof1812）

production reached 400 thousand bales a year.

年产量达到了40万捆

As America was expanding through the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803,

随着美国1803年路易斯安那购地后领土的扩张

yearly production exploded to four million bales. Cotton was king.

年产量暴增到400万捆。棉花获得了统治地位。

It exceeded the value of all other American products combined,

棉花产量超过了美国其他产品价值总和

about three fifths of America's economic output.

占到美国经济产出的五分之三

But instead of reducing the need for labor, the cotton gin propelled it,

但轧棉机并没有降低对人力的需求，相反却起到了推动作用

as more slaves were needed to plant and harvest king cotton.

因为棉花的种植和采摘需要越来越多的奴隶

The cotton gin and the demand of Northern and English factories re-charted the course of American slavery.

轧棉机和来自北方和英国工厂的需求一起，改变了美国奴隶制的历史进程

In 1790, America's first official census counted nearly 700 thousand slaves.

1790年，美国首次官方人口普查显示近70万奴隶

By 1810, two years after the slave trade was banned in America,

1810年，奴隶买卖已在美国禁止了两年

the number had shot up to more than one million.

奴隶人数却猛增到100多万

During the next 50 years, that number exploded to nearly four million slaves in 1860,

在接下来的50年里，奴隶人数不断增长，1860年达到了近400万人

the eve of the Civil War.

也就是美国内战的前夜

As for Whitney, he suffered the fate of many an inventor.

对于惠特尼来说，他和众多发明家有着同样的命运

Despite his patent, other planters easily built copies of his machine, or made improvements of their own.

虽然他享有专利，但其他种植园主可以轻易模仿或改进轧棉机

You might say his design was pirated.

当然我们可以认为他的发明是盗版的

Whitney made very little money from the device that transformed America.

惠特尼并没有在这个改变美国的机器上获利多少

But to the bigger picture, and the larger questions.

但如果我们用长远的眼光看这个现象

What should we make of the cotton gin?

我们应该如何评价轧棉机？

History has proven that inventions can be double-edged swords.

历史证明，有些发明可以成为双刃剑

They often carry unintended consequences.

他们通常都有着意想不到的后果

The factories of the Industrial Revolution spurred innovation and an economic boom in America.

工业革命中的工厂在美国掀起了创新热潮和经济增长

But they also depended on child labor,

但同时，这些工厂依赖于雇佣童工

and led to tragedies like the Triangle Shirtwaist fire that killed more than 100 women in 1911.

并导致各种惨剧，比如1911年，造成100多名女工死亡的纽约三角内衣工厂火灾

Disposable diapers made life easy for parents,

一次性纸尿裤给父母们带来了福音

but they killed off diaper delivery services.

但却扼杀了尿裤递送服务

And do we want landfills overwhelmed by dirty diapers?

而且成堆的废弃纸尿裤真是我们想要的看到的结果吗？

And of course, Einstein's extraordinary equation opened a world of possibilities.

当然还有，爱因斯坦非凡的方程式开启了无限可能

But what if one of them is Hiroshima?

可能性之一 -- 长岛原子弹爆炸 -- 又要如何评说呢？