The Telephone

David McCullough, Series Host: Good evening and welcome to The American Experience.

大卫·麦卡洛（David McCullough），系列主持人：晚上好，欢迎来到《美国经历》。

I'm David McCullough.

我是大卫·麦卡洛。

We like to think — we boast, we complain — that we live in a time of incredible technological change.

我们喜欢认为——我们吹嘘，我们抱怨——我们生活在一个技术变革令人难以置信的时代。

And we do.

我们确实这么做了。

But consider what happened in that expansive American era of the late nineteenth century, in the years after the Civil War.

但想想十九世纪末、内战后的那个广阔的美国时代所发生的事情。

All at once, in a great inventive surge came the light bulb, the refrigerator, electric street cars, barbed wire, the typewriter, the elevator, skyscrapers, the horseless carriage -- all in about thirty-five years, plus one other extremely important contribution, that would change our whole way of talking to each other, the telephone, which is our story tonight.

突然间，在伟大的发明浪潮中出现了灯泡、冰箱、电动街车、铁丝网、打字机、电梯、摩天大楼、无马马车——所有这一切都发生在大约三十五年的时间里，再加上另一个极其重要的贡献，这将改变我们彼此交谈的整个方式，电话，这就是我们今晚的故事。

Two young men in their twenties working in Boston thought they were on to something.

两名在波士顿工作的二十多岁的年轻人认为他们发现了一些事情。

Neither Alexander Graham Bell nor his assistant, Thomas Watson, was a trained scientist or a practical electrician.

亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔和他的助手托马斯·沃森都不是受过训练的科学家或实用的电工。

But Bell, a Scottish immigrant, knew a great deal about the phenomena of sound.

但身为苏格兰移民的贝尔对声音现象了解甚多。

Both were exceptionally resourceful and bright and as important as anything was the spirit of the times, the whole climate of invention in which they worked, one new idea coming after another on all sides and nearly every good idea leading to another.

两人都非常足智多谋、聪明才智，与任何事物一样重要的是时代精神、他们工作的整个发明氛围、各个方面一个又一个的新想法，几乎每一个好想法都会催生另一个想法。

It was an exhilarating time to have been in the thick of it.

那是一段令人兴奋的时刻。

The telephone itself would inspire the phonograph, refine the radio, and pave the way to talking pictures.

电话本身启发了留声机，改进了收音机，并为有声图像铺平了道路。

The world was not to be the same again.

世界不再一样了。

One small contrivance considered at first to be a toy became almost overnight universally indispensable.

一个最初被认为是玩具的小发明几乎在一夜之间变得普遍不可或缺。

The Telephone.

电话。

THE TELEPHONE

电话

Narrator: Philadelphia, 1876.

旁白：费城，1876 年。

America turned one hundred and the grand Centennial Exposition was its birthday party.

美国一百岁了，盛大的百年博览会是它的生日聚会。

The Liberty Bell welcomed visitors, and the American public got its first glimpse of a statue destined for New York Harbor.

自由钟欢迎游客，美国公众也第一次看到这座运往纽约港的雕像。

A Pittsburgh pickle merchant introduced a tomato sauce that was 29% sugar, and a local pharmacist named Charles Hires took a friend's advice and changed the name of his new "herb tea." A huge Corliss steam engine powered the exhibits, which were lit by electric lights -- something most people hadn't seen.

匹兹堡的一位泡菜商人推出了一种含糖量为 29% 的番茄酱，当地一位名叫查尔斯·海尔斯 (Charles Hires) 的药剂师采纳了朋友的建议，更改了他的新“香草茶”的名称。一台巨大的科利斯蒸汽机为展品提供动力，展品被电灯照亮——这是大多数人没有见过的。

The Centennial boasted a wealth of extraordinary exhibits, but no one anticipated the most extraordinary of them all.

百年纪念展拥有大量非凡的展品，但没有人预料到其中最非凡的展品。

Narrator: It was a device called the "Harmonic Telegraph," and would forever revolutionize the way the world communicates.

旁白：这是一种名为“谐波电报机”的设备，它将永远彻底改变世界的通讯方式。

Its name would have to be changed, of course; it would become the more comfortable "telephone," from the Greek, meaning "far speaking."

当然，它的名字必须改变；它将成为更舒适的“电话”，来自希腊语，意思是“远方通话”。

It was exhibited by a 29-year-old teacher from Boston who'd never invented anything before.

它的展出者是一位来自波士顿的 29 岁老师，他以前从未发明过任何东西。

Three months earlier he had been issued a patent for his device.

三个月前，他的设备获得了专利。

A week later, he actually made it work.

一周后，他真的成功了。

This inventive schoolteacher was Alexander Graham Bell.

这位富有创造力的教师就是亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔。

He was the third generation of Bells to center his life on the phenomenon of sound, with a passionate interest in the education of the deaf.

他是贝尔家族的第三代人，一生致力于声音现象，对聋人教育充满热情。

Early on June 18, 1876, the tired, overworked Bell was convinced by his pupil — and wife-to-be — to take the train to the Philadelphia Centennial.

1876 年 6 月 18 日一早，疲惫不堪、劳累过度的贝尔在他的学生兼未婚妻的说服下，乘坐火车前往费城百年纪念馆。

Robert Bruce, Bell Biographer : Well, as a matter of fact, he didn't want to go.

贝尔传记作者罗伯特·布鲁斯：嗯，事实上，他不想去。

He had a lot of exams to correct -- he was teaching at Boston University at the time.

他有很多考试需要批改——当时他在波士顿大学任教。

But his fiancé, Mabel Hubbard, who was a very perceptive woman, could see the importance of getting this new device before the public.

但他的未婚夫梅布尔·哈伯德 (Mabel Hubbard) 是一位非常有洞察力的女性，她能够看到向公众展示这款新设备的重要性。

She pulled out all the stops and persuaded him to go down there.

她使出浑身解数，劝他下去。

Dear Mabel: There is no turning back now!

亲爱的梅布尔：现在已经没有回头路了！

[I] shall be in Philadelphia tonight!

[我]今晚将在费城！

I must confess, however, I don't see what good I can accomplish [there].

然而，我必须承认，我看不出我能[在那里]取得什么成果。

Narrator: Hidden in a dark corner of a small upstairs gallery, Bell readied his invention for the judges.

旁白：贝尔躲在楼上小画廊的一个黑暗角落里，为评委们准备了他的发明。

The group was presided over by the Centennial's most distinguished visitor -- Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil.

该团体由百年纪念最尊贵的访客——巴西皇帝唐·佩德罗主持。

The Emperor held the peculiar "device" to his ear while the inventor, 500 feet away, recited one of Hamlet's soliloquies into the "magneto" telephone.

皇帝把这个奇特的“装置”放在耳边，而发明家则在 500 英尺外对着“磁电机”电话背诵哈姆雷特的一段独白。

Robert Bruce: When the Emperor tried it, he was galvanized, he was startled.

罗伯特·布鲁斯：当皇帝尝试时，他很兴奋，他很震惊。

He claimed, "I hear, I hear!"

他声称：“我听到了，我听到了！”

Barney Finn, Curator, Smithsonian Institution: This was a rather startling thing, after all: to be able to talk into one thing, and then hundreds of feet away, you hear something at the receiver.

巴尼·芬恩（Barney Finn），史密森尼学会馆长：毕竟，这是一件相当令人惊讶的事情：能够对一件事说话，然后在数百英尺之外，你会在接收器中听到一些声音。

Scientists had believed that this was basically impossible -- that the amount of energy that you get from the voice, that you put into this device, would not be sufficient to carry to the other end, and then get reproduced so you could hear it again.

科学家们认为这基本上是不可能的——你从声音中获得的能量，输入到这个设备中，不足以传送到另一端，然后被复制，这样你就可以再次听到它。

Narrator: The astounded judges dropped all pretense at decorum, jostling eagerly to be next in line to hear Bell's voice, cheering with delight after each successful test.

旁白：震惊的评委们不再故作礼节，急切地挤到下一个听到贝尔声音的队伍中，每次成功的测试后都欢呼雀跃。

The excited scientists made so much fuss, exposition police thought the building caught fire.

兴奋的科学家们大惊小怪，博览会警察认为大楼着火了。

Narrator: Ironically, on the same day as Bell's triumph in Philadelphia, a grimmer history was being made on a Montana hillside.

旁白：具有讽刺意味的是，就在贝尔在费城获胜的同一天，蒙大拿州的山坡上正在创造更残酷的历史。

General George Armstrong Custer had been surrounded by an army of Sioux warriors.

乔治·阿姆斯特朗·卡斯特将军被苏族战士军队包围。

The country had a hunger for news of Custer's celebrated campaigns, but informing the nation of his defeat from this remote territory was slow and complex.

这个国家渴望获得卡斯特著名战役的消息，但从这个偏远地区向全国通报他的失败是缓慢而复杂的。

It was two days before a scout could be sent on horseback to carry the dispatch from the battlefield to Stillwater, Montana, 300 miles to the south.

两天后，一名侦察兵被派去骑马，将消息从战场送到以南 300 英里的蒙大拿州斯蒂尔沃特。

There a newspaperman sent a rider to Salt Lake City, the closest link to the telegraph lines of Western Union.

在那里，一位新闻记者派了一名乘客前往盐湖城，那里是距离西联电报线路最近的地方。

Hours later in New York City, the 300-word dispatch was transcribed in longhand and taken on foot to The New York Times.

几小时后，这份 300 字的快报在纽约市被手写并步行送到《纽约时报》。

Unable to contact Montana directly, the cautious Times editors waited for confirmation.

由于无法直接联系蒙大拿州，谨慎的《泰晤士报》编辑等待确认。

Finally, on July 7th -- twelve days after Custer's defeat -- Americans first learned the "news."

最后，7 月 7 日——卡斯特战败十二天后——美国人第一次得知了这个“消息”。

Narrator: Some of those witnessing the telephone in operation at the Centennial may have sensed how the odd machine would bring revolutionary changes to everyday life, but the idea of instant two-way communication from coast-to-coast had not yet entered anyone's mind.

旁白：在百年纪念活动中目睹电话运行的一些人可能已经意识到这台奇怪的机器将如何给日常生活带来革命性的变化，但从东海岸到西海岸的即时双向通信的想法还没有进入任何人的脑海。

Unlike a telegraph, a telephone would directly link people cheaply and instantly.

与电报不同，电话可以廉价且即时地将人们直接联系起来。

And no one had a telegraph at home.

而且家里没有人有电报机。

Some, however, found it impossible to take the "device" seriously.

然而，有些人发现不可能认真对待这个“设备”。

VO: Of what use is such an invention?

VO：这样的发明有什么用呢？

Well there may be occasions of state when it is necessary for officials who are far apart to talk with each other.

那么，在某些国家场合，相距较远的官员之间可能需要互相交谈。

[...] Or some lover may wish to pop the question directly into the ear of a lady and hear for himself her reply, though miles away.

[...] 或者，某些情人可能希望直接向一位女士提出问题，并亲耳听到她的回答，尽管距离很远。

It is not for us to guess how courtships will be carried on in the twentieth century...

我们无法猜测二十世纪的求爱将如何进行......

THE INVENTORS Narrator: It had all begun in Boston, 2 years before the Centennial, when Alexander Graham Bell first met Thomas Watson at the Williams' Electrical Shop.

发明家 旁白：这一切都始于波士顿，即百年纪念之前的两年，当时亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔在威廉姆斯电器店第一次见到托马斯·沃森。

Susan Cheever, Author, Watson descendant: There was this great machine shop in Boston where everybody came, and Thomas Edison came, and Moses Farmer, and all these inventors -- and inventors then were kind of like rock stars.

苏珊·奇弗（Susan Cheever），作家，沃森后裔：波士顿有一家伟大的机械厂，每个人都来了，托马斯·爱迪生也来了，摩西·法默，以及所有这些发明家——当时的发明家有点像摇滚明星。

I mean, it was when everybody thought that...

我的意思是，当时每个人都认为...

it was the Age of Enlightenment, is what it was.

那是启蒙时代，就是这样。

Everybody thought there was reason for everything, and that we could figure it out, and that our problems were at an end.

每个人都认为一切都有原因，我们可以解决问题，我们的问题就结束了。

And Williams' Machine Shop was this place where a lot of inventors came to work on these devices that were going to solve all human ills.

威廉姆斯的机械车间是许多发明家开始研究这些将解决人类所有疾病的设备的地方。

Robert Bruce: Bell, who could be irrepressibly enthusiastic, was in the shop and wanted something done in a hurry, and without going through channels, through Williams and all that, he just went out and grabbed one of the young men working there, who turned out to be Thomas Watson -- a remarkable find, because Watson was a man of great talent.

罗伯特·布鲁斯：贝尔可能会抑制不住的热情，他在店里，想要尽快完成一些事情，没有通过渠道，通过威廉姆斯和所有这些，他只是出去抓住了在那里工作的一个年轻人，结果证明他是托马斯·沃森——一个了不起的发现，因为沃森是一个很有才华的人。

Susan Cheever: And Bell was incredibly clumsy.

苏珊·奇弗：贝尔非常笨拙。

I mean, he could not pick something up without dropping it.

我的意思是，他无法在不掉落的情况下捡起某样东西。

He could not pick up a hammer without hitting his thumb with it, and Watson was the opposite, and they were a perfect match.

他拿起锤子时就会用拇指敲击，而沃森则相反，他们是完美的搭配。

Narrator: Watson was a young machinist who had been born above a stable.

旁白：沃森是一位年轻的机械师，出生在马厩上。

Over dinner at Bell's boarding house, he earnestly tried to copy Bell's every move with a tool he had never seen before -- a dinner fork.

在贝尔的寄宿处吃晚饭时，他认真地尝试用他以前从未见过的工具——餐叉来模仿贝尔的一举一动。

Later Watson watched, stunned, as Bell played the piano in the parlor.

后来，沃森震惊地看着贝尔在客厅里弹钢琴。

Susan Cheever: Bell was the gentleman, Bell had gone to school, Bell came from a...

苏珊·奇弗：贝尔是一位绅士，贝尔上过学，贝尔来自……

from a good family, you know, he wore a suit, and Watson was the rogue, he didn't have any education, he swore a lot.

来自一个好家庭，你知道，他穿着西装，而沃森是个流氓，他没有受过任何教育，他经常说脏话。

So Bell kind of civilized Watson, and Watson sort of roughed up Bell.

因此，贝尔有点文明了沃森，而沃森则有点粗暴贝尔。

Narrator: Initially, the telephone that was seen at the Centennial was not Bell's goal.

旁白：最初，在百年纪念会上看到的电话并不是贝尔的目标。

He wanted to develop a machine called the Harmonic Telegraph.

他想开发一种称为谐波电报机的机器。

It would send a number of telegraph messages at the same time, each at its own pitch.

它会同时发送多条电报消息，每条电报消息都有自己的音调。

He believed such an invention would make him rich.

他相信这样的发明会让他变得富有。

It wasn't long before his intense interest in sound began to lure him away from telegraphy to wonder about something else.

没过多久，他对声音的强烈兴趣就开始吸引他远离电报，转而思考其他事情。

Gil Grosvenor, Chairman, National Geographic Society, Bell descendant: Bell came from a family dedicated to teaching the deaf, and it had a profound influence on him throughout his life -- and may really have helped him invent the telephone, because he had an interest in the inner workings of the ear; he understood it medically, and I think that that influenced his development.

吉尔·格罗夫纳，国家地理学会主席，贝尔后裔：贝尔出身于一个致力于教育聋人的家庭，这对他的一生产生了深远的影响——而且可能真的帮助他发明了电话，因为他对耳朵的内部运作很感兴趣；他从医学上理解了这一点，我认为这影响了他的发展。

Narrator : Soon, Bell described a wonderful — but perhaps impractical — idea to Watson:

旁白：很快，贝尔向沃森描述了一个美妙但也许不切实际的想法：

Narrator: Suddenly, Bell's idea was no longer "impractical." Watson quickly constructed a new device, placing a lamb skin diaphragm opposite a magnet in a transmitter, running a connecting wire through sulfuric acid, causing the receiving membrane to vibrate.

旁白：突然之间，贝尔的想法不再“不切实际”。沃森很快构建了一种新设备，将羊皮隔膜放置在发射器中磁铁的对面，将连接线穿过硫酸，导致接收膜振动。

They tested this primitive system the very next night.

他们第二天晚上测试了这个原始系统。

Susan Cheever: They thought they had a machine that would really work, so they set it up and Bell went into the next room, and Watson could hear him.

苏珊·奇弗：他们认为他们有一台真正可以工作的机器，所以他们把它安装好，贝尔走进隔壁房间，沃森可以听到他的声音。

The way I imagine is, it sounded like "raow-raow-raow," but it was a voice, I mean, he couldn't hear him very well, but he could hear his voice.

我想象的是，听起来像“raow-raow-raow”，但那是一个声音，我的意思是，他听不清楚，但他能听到他的声音。

I could recognize the sound of Bell's voice and could almost understand some of his words.

我能听出贝尔的声音，并且几乎能听懂他的一些话。

But my voice was not strong enough then to let him hear a sound.

但当时我的声音还不够大，不足以让他听到声音。

He was disappointed...

他很失望……

Robert Bruce: Then he tried another arrangement, and on that try came the famous first complete, intelligible sentence transmitted by telephone.

罗伯特·布鲁斯：然后他尝试了另一种安排，在这次尝试中出现了通过电话传输的著名的第一个完整的、可理解的句子。

On the evening of March 10th, 1876, Bell sat in front of the new transmitter and I went down the hall...

1876 年 3 月 10 日晚上，贝尔坐在新发射机前，我沿着大厅走去……

Susan Cheever: What actually my Grandpa Watson is the most famous for — and this is a story all American school children have been told — is that they were there working on the telephone one afternoon, and Alexander Graham Bell spilled battery acid on his hand, which is easy to believe, because he was clumsy.

苏珊·奇弗：实际上，我的沃森爷爷最出名的事——这是所有美国小学生都听说过的故事——是，有一天下午，他们在那里打电话，亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔把电池酸液洒在了他的手上，这很容易相信，因为他很笨拙。

Watson hears and runs into the next room.

沃森听到了，跑进隔壁房间。

Susan Cheever: He yelled out, involuntarily, "Watson, come here, I want you," or "Come here, I need you." In different versions he says different things, but the point is, he wasn't even trying to send voice through the wires.

苏珊·奇弗：他不由自主地喊道：“沃森，过来，我需要你。”或者“过来，我需要你。”在不同的版本中，他说了不同的话，但要点是，他甚至没有试图通过电线发送声音。

I recognized your voice!

我认出了你的声音！

You said, "Mr. Watson..."

你说：“沃森先生……”

Susan Cheever: And of course they forget all about the battery acid when they realize that they've invented the telephone.

苏珊·奇弗：当然，当他们意识到自己发明了电话时，他们就忘记了电池酸的一切。

In my great-grandfather's autobiography, this story is told really very, very well.

在我曾祖父的自传中，这个故事讲得非常非常好。

My great-grandfather, when he sat down to write this book, really took a lot of care in telling this story, so that it was the dramatic moment that should have been attendant on the invention of a great thing.

我的曾祖父在坐下来写这本书时，确实非常用心地讲述这个故事，所以这是一个伟大事物的发明应该伴随的戏剧性时刻。

And both Bell and Watson kept scrupulous logs on which they said everything that had happened, on every day, and on the day when they had heard voice through the wire, there was nothing about battery acid, there was nothing about an accident, there was nothing about a cry for help.

贝尔和沃森都仔细记录了每天发生的一切，在他们通过电线听到声音的那天，没有任何关于电池酸的事情，没有任何关于事故的事情，没有任何关于呼救的事情。

Robert Bruce: If you believe Bell said, "Come here, Mr. Watson, I want to see you," the acid spilling story doesn't make much sense.

罗伯特·布鲁斯：如果你相信贝尔说的“过来，沃森先生，我想见你”，那么酸泄漏的故事就没有多大意义。

I know if I spilled acid on my pants, I'd say something memorable but it wouldn't be that.

我知道如果我把酸洒在裤子上，我会说一些令人难忘的话，但事实并非如此。

I wouldn't ask for a consultation.

我不会要求咨询。

Susan Cheever: I began to believe that when he sat down to write his autobiography — many years after the telephone had been invented — that he kind of gave the story the dramatic flare that it required, you know?

苏珊·奇弗：我开始相信，当他坐下来写自传时——电话发明多年后——他给了这个故事所需的戏剧性色彩，你知道吗？

But instead of writing exactly what did happen, he kind of allowed himself to write what should have happened.

但他并没有准确地写下已经发生的事情，而是允许自己写下应该发生的事情。

I think it's great that he didn't just invent the telephone, he invented the story of the telephone.

我认为他不仅发明了电话，而且还发明了电话的故事，这真是太棒了。

TALK IS NOT CHEAP Narrator: In the summer of 1876, Bell and Watson were convinced the telephone could make money; they just didn't know how.

说话并不便宜 旁白：1876 年夏天，贝尔和沃森确信电话可以赚钱；他们只是不知道怎么做。

To others, however, the invention was more amusement than breakthrough, more toy than triumph.

然而，对于其他人来说，这项发明更多的是娱乐而不是突破，更多的是玩具而不是胜利。

Robert Bruce: Before the telephone was really a paying proposition, they had to find ways of bringing in money.

罗伯特·布鲁斯：在电话真正成为一种付费产品之前，他们必须找到赚钱的方法。

And they had some success at first with the novelty aspect of the telephone.

他们一开始在电话的新颖性方面取得了一些成功。

They gave public demonstrations of it.

他们公开展示了这一点。

Perhaps the most notable was from Salem to Boston, about 20-some miles distant.

也许最引人注目的是从塞勒姆到波士顿，相距约 20 英里。

VO : Ladies and gentlemen: It gives me great pleasure to be able to address you this evening, although I am in Boston, and you are in Salem!

画外音：女士们、先生们：我很高兴今晚能够向你们讲话，尽管我在波士顿，而你们在塞勒姆！

Susan Cheever: They made it into a sort of dog and pony show.

苏珊·奇弗：他们把它变成了一种狗和小马表演。

Mr. Watson and Mr. Bell and their fabulous telephone.

沃森先生和贝尔先生以及他们出色的电话。

Susan Cheever : Bell would get on stage with the telephone.

苏珊·奇弗：贝尔会拿着电话上台。

Watson would go to a location which would be verified by someone in the audience as being far away, because everybody assumed that it was a trick.

沃森会去一个被观众证实为遥远的地点，因为每个人都认为这是一个把戏。

I am the invisible Tom Watson!

我是隐形的汤姆·沃森！

Everybody hears me!

大家都听我的！

Nobody sees me!

没人看见我！

The audience reacts with delight upon hearing Watson's voice coming through Bell's telephone.

观众听到贝尔电话中传来沃森的声音后，反应很高兴。

Susan Cheever: Watson would talk to Bell, and then he would sing.

苏珊·奇弗：沃森会和贝尔说话，然后他会唱歌。

Ahoy!

哎哟！

Ahoy, Mr. Watson!

嘿，沃森先生！

Will you oblige us with a song?

你愿意为我们唱首歌吗？

Watson launches into an off-key rendition of "Do Not Trust Him Gentle Lady."

沃森开始跑调地演绎“温柔的女士，不要相信他”。

Susan Cheever: And Watson, although he was a many-talented man, wasn't a great singer.

苏珊·奇弗：沃森虽然是一位多才多艺的人，但并不是一位伟大的歌手。

But he loved to sing, and the audience just went nuts.

但他喜欢唱歌，观众都为之疯狂。

Here was this guy, you know five blocks away or, a town away sometimes, and they could hear him singing out of this machine.

这就是这个家伙，你知道五个街区之外，有时甚至一个城镇之外，他们可以听到他在这台机器中唱歌。

Often he had to go through his entire repertory two or three times to satisfy the audience.

为了让观众满意，他常常必须把自己的全部剧目都看两遍或三遍。

So, it was a great show.

所以，这是一场精彩的表演。

Narrator: With the success of the public demonstrations, the telephone began its journey from novelty to necessity.

旁白：随着公众示威的成功，电话开始了从新奇到必需的旅程。

Bell's first telephone installation was for Watson's employer, Charles Williams, installed gratis.

贝尔的第一部电话安装是为沃森的雇主查尔斯·威廉姆斯免费安装的。

They connected a "dedicated" line between his electrical shop and his home a few miles away, erecting the first telephone pole in the process.

他们在他的电器店和几英里外的家之间连接了一条“专用”线路，在此过程中竖起了第一根电话杆。

Only one person could speak at a time, but Williams became the first man to phone his wife to let her know he was on his way home.

一次只有一个人可以说话，但威廉姆斯成为第一个给妻子打电话让她知道他正在回家的路上的男人。

News of the Williams line stirred public interest.

威廉姆斯系列的消息引起了公众的兴趣。

E.T.

外星人

Holmes, who had just opened a burglar alarm company, ordered a dozen of the devices for his central office.

霍姆斯刚刚开了一家防盗报警公司，为他的中央办公室订购了十几台设备。

Within a year of the Centennial exhibition, Bell had installed 230 instruments, and he and his partners established the Bell Telephone Company.

在百年纪念展览的一年内，贝尔安装了 230 台仪器，他和他的合作伙伴建立了贝尔电话公司。

The device was slowly catching on, but Bell and his backers knew they had only 17 years to exploit his original patent.

该设备慢慢流行起来，但贝尔和他的支持者知道他们只有 17 年的时间来利用他的原始专利。

So they sought quick profits and charged exorbitant rates, renting their magical instrument primarily as a tool of business and commerce.

因此，他们寻求快速利润并收取过高的费用，出租他们的神奇仪器主要作为商业和商业的工具。

Claude Fischer, Scholar: When a town got a telephone system, usually the first to sign up would be the doctors, doctor or doctors in the town, and the pharmacist.

克劳德·费舍尔（Claude Fischer），学者：当一个城镇有了电话系统时，通常第一个报名的就是镇上的医生、医生和药剂师。

Often the call from the doctor to the pharmacy was one of the most important calls that could be made.

通常，医生给药房的电话是可以拨打的最重要的电话之一。

Narrator: The technology did not exist for timing calls, so the Bell Company charged a flat monthly rate.

旁白：当时还没有用于计时呼叫的技术，因此贝尔公司每月收取固定费用。

Since the public was fascinated with the telephone, pharmacies let their customers use the phone for free.

由于公众对电话着迷，药店让顾客免费使用电话。

It wasn't long before the telephone became synonymous with the corner drugstore.

没过多久，电话就成了街角药店的代名词。

Narrator: In Hartford, Connecticut, an idiosyncratic writer became one of the first Americans to get a telephone.

旁白：在康涅狄格州哈特福德，一位独特的作家成为第一批拥有电话的美国人之一。

Robert Bruce: Mark Twain was very much into the latest technology.

罗伯特·布鲁斯：马克·吐温非常热衷于最新技术。

Tom Sawyer was the first novel written on the typewriter.

《汤姆索亚历险记》是第一部用打字机写成的小说。

And so of course Twain picked up on the telephone.

吐温当然接了电话。

John Vincent Boyer, Mark Twain House: Twain was one of the first to have a telephone in a private home, and its first direct line was to the Hartford Courant.

约翰·文森特·博耶，马克·吐温故居：吐温是最早在私人住宅中拥有电话的人之一，第一条直拨电话是通往《哈特福德新闻报》的。

And he had an immediate attraction to it, but also a profound repulsion.

他对它有一种直接的吸引力，但也有一种深深的排斥。

It was a wonderful love-hate relationship with this new invention.

人们对这项新发明真是又爱又恨。

VO: The human voice carries entirely too far as it is.

画外音：人类的声音传播得太远了。

Here we have been hollering 'Shut up' to our neighbors for centuries and now you fellows come along and seek to complicate matters...

几个世纪以来，我们一直在对我们的邻居大喊“闭嘴”，现在你们这些家伙却出现了，试图让事情变得复杂……

Narrator: Despite Twain's crankiness, the telephone began to be marketed as a valuable addition to the homes of those wealthy enough to afford it.

旁白：尽管吐温脾气暴躁，电话还是开始被宣传为那些有能力买得起电话的富人家庭的有价值的补充。

In New Haven, a flyer advertised: "Your wife may order your dinner, a hack, or your family physician without leaving the house." In 1879, President Rutherford B.

在纽黑文，一张传单上写着：“你的妻子可以在足不出户的情况下为你订晚餐、小菜或家庭医生。” 1879 年，卢瑟福 B.

Hayes installed the first White House phone.

海耶斯安装了第一部白宫电话。

He deemed it "one of the greatest events since creation." His first call was to Bell, 13 miles away.

他认为这是“自创世以来最伟大的事件之一”。他的第一个电话是打给 13 英里外的贝尔。

His first words: "Please speak more slowly." Bell, now a man with prospects, proposed to his sweetheart, Mabel Hubbard, and offered his 30% share of the company as a wedding gift.

他的第一句话是：“请说慢一点。”贝尔现在已经是一个有前途的人，他向他的心上人梅布尔·哈伯德求婚，并把他所持有的公司 30% 的股份作为结婚礼物。

Life looked good for the young inventor.

这位年轻发明家的生活看起来很美好。

Bell packed his patent in a briefcase and went to see if the largest corporation in America was interested.

贝尔把他的专利装进公文包，去看看美国最大的公司是否有兴趣。

With its substantial network of telegraph wires, Western Union could make widespread phone service a reality quickly.

凭借其庞大的电报线网络，西联汇款可以迅速使广泛的电话服务成为现实。

David was truly coming to negotiate with Goliath.

大卫确实是来与歌利亚谈判的。

The asking price was $100,000.

要价是10万美元。

Western Union's myopic president, William Orton, turned them down flat.

西联汇款的短视总裁威廉·奥顿断然拒绝了他们。

Louis Galambos, Historian: After the fact it looks unbelievably stupid.

历史学家路易斯·加兰博斯（Louis Galambos）：事后看来，它愚蠢得令人难以置信。

You just can't believe...

你简直不敢相信...

it may be...

可能是...

it's often given as one of the worst business decisions in the history of the United States.

它经常被认为是美国历史上最糟糕的商业决策之一。

Here he had in hand the biggest corporation in America -- why should they take the risk?

他手上有美国最大的公司——他们为什么要冒这个险呢？

They didn't think the telephone would make it.

他们不认为电话能成功。

Narrator: Having made the decision, Western Union quickly came to regret it, and formed its own rival company.

旁白：做出这个决定后，西联汇款很快就后悔了，并成立了自己的竞争对手公司。

They hired inventors Thomas Edison and Elisha Gray to develop a new phone system.

他们聘请发明家托马斯·爱迪生和伊丽莎·格雷来开发一种新的电话系统。

Suddenly Bell and Edison, legendary inventors, were on opposing sides in a battle to wire America.

突然之间，传奇发明家贝尔和爱迪生在一场美国布线之战中站在了对立的立场上。

The two rivals even differed on the proper way to answer the phone: Bell thought "Hoy, hoy" best, while Edison championed "Hello".

两位竞争对手甚至在接听电话的正确方式上也存在分歧：贝尔认为“嘿，嘿”最好，而爱迪生则主张“你好”。

The competition between the two companies sparked innovation: Western Union opened the first crude switchboard in New Haven, Connecticut in early 1878.

两家公司之间的竞争激发了创新：西联汇款 (Western Union) 于 1878 年初在康涅狄格州纽黑文开设了第一家原油总机。

Three weeks later they published the world's first telephone directory.

三周后，他们出版了世界上第一个电话簿。

It was a single page of fifty names -- no numbers were needed.

一页上有五十个名字——不需要数字。

With its huge customer base, and endless resources, Western Union connected 30,000 phones in less than a year.

凭借其庞大的客户群和无尽的资源，西联汇款在不到一年的时间内连接了 30,000 部电话。

The Bell Company was furious that their rival's phone was virtually identical to theirs, and they sued Western Union for patent infringement.

贝尔公司对竞争对手的手机与自己的手机几乎一模一样感到愤怒，并起诉西联汇款侵犯专利。

Western Union claimed fraud, citing their Elisha Gray -- who had filed an intent to patent only three hours after Bell -- as the true inventor of the telephone.

西联汇款声称存在欺诈行为，称他们的伊丽莎·格雷（Elisha Gray）是电话的真正发明者，他在贝尔之后仅三个小时就提交了专利意向。

Robert Bruce : The remarkable coincidence, as it seemed, of Elisha Gray's caveat being entered on the same day that Bell's patent application was, has raised a debate that still continues, and I think altogether unnecessarily.

罗伯特·布鲁斯：伊丽莎·格雷的警告与贝尔的专利申请在同一天提出，这似乎是一个惊人的巧合，引发了一场仍在继续的争论，我认为完全没有必要。

Because Gray had never mentioned to anybody between the date he claimed he had thought of it and the date of the caveat -- or made any record of it.

因为从格雷声称自己想到这一点到提出警告的日期之间，他从未向任何人提起过，也没有对此做过任何记录。

However, Western Union took him up and pushed the claim, and bit by bit Gray began to accept the Western Union theory that he really was the inventor, and that somehow or other he had been robbed.

然而，西联汇款接受了他并提出了这一主张，格雷逐渐开始接受西联汇款的理论，即他确实是发明家，并且不知何故他被抢劫了。

Narrator: In the courtroom, Bell was an ideal witness: literate, poised and forceful.-

旁白：在法庭上，贝尔是一位理想的证人：有文化、镇定且有力。-

Louis Galambos: Well, he brought believability.

Louis Galambos：嗯，他带来了可信度。

He was a person who was serious about what he did, who had clearly done it all himself.

他是一个做事很认真的人，显然这一切都是他自己做的。

Susan Cheever: In fact, Bell's real contribution may not have been the telephone but the telephone patent, because he wrote such a good patent that nobody could challenge it.

苏珊·奇弗：事实上，贝尔真正的贡献可能不是电话，而是电话专利，因为他写的专利太好了，没人能挑战。

Narrator: In the face of Bell's incontrovertible evidence, Western Union accepted its fate, and late in 1879 gave up the patent suit.

旁白：面对贝尔无可争议的证据，西联汇款接受了自己的命运，并于1879年底放弃了专利诉讼。

Overnight, Bell Telephone stock rose from $300 to $1000 a share.

一夜之间，贝尔电话公司的股价从每股 300 美元上涨至 1000 美元。

Narrator: Throughout the 1880s, anyone who had ever tinkered with the telephone decided to sue.

旁白：整个 1880 年代，任何曾经摆弄过电话的人都决定提起诉讼。

Bell was forced to defend his patent in over 600 court battles.

贝尔被迫在 600 多场法庭诉讼中捍卫自己的专利。

Worn out by constant courtroom appearances, Bell drifted away from telephony to his family's retreat in Canada.

由于经常出庭，贝尔精疲力尽，他不再使用电话，而是回到了家人在加拿大的隐居地。

Gil Grosvenor: Once the telephone worked, once he proved his point, he lost interest in it.

吉尔·格罗夫纳：一旦电话接通，一旦他证明了自己的观点，他就失去了兴趣。

It was a done thing.

这是已经完成的事情了。

He just wanted to get on to other things.

他只是想继续做其他事情。

Narrator: Bell was an enormously wealthy man when he gracefully withdrew from the company that bore his name.

旁白：当贝尔优雅地退出以他的名字命名的公司时，他是一个非常富有的人。

He immersed himself in a world of invention, designing fanciful flying machines and even dreaming of wireless communication.

他沉浸在发明的世界中，设计奇特的飞行器，甚至梦想无线通信。

At his Canadian retreat, after putting his two daughters to bed, he would retire to a canoe to smoke a cigar and stare at the moon.

在他的加拿大度假胜地，安顿完两个女儿上床睡觉后，他会回到独木舟上抽雪茄，凝视月亮。

Meanwhile, with a patent that would shut everybody else out for another 13 years, the Bell Company had become a massive monopoly.

与此同时，贝尔公司凭借一项将其他公司再拒之门外 13 年的专利，成为了一个巨大的垄断企业。

Now they just had to find a way to handle the ever-increasing number of calls that customers were clamoring for.

现在，他们只需要找到一种方法来处理客户不断增加的电话需求。

HELLO, CENTRAL...

你好，中央...

Narrator: By March of 1880 — just four years after the Centennial demonstration — the newly organized American Bell Telephone Company was in control of 60,000 American telephones.

旁白：到 1880 年 3 月，即百年纪念示威后仅四年，新组建的美国贝尔电话公司就控制了 60,000 部美国电话。

They were connected in every city with a population over 10,000.

他们在每一个人口超过一万的城市都有联系。

Improvements in switchboard technology allowed operators to handle not tens of calls, but hundreds.

总机技术的改进使接线员能够处理的电话不再是数十个，而是数百个。

The first operators were boys, who earned a reputation for being rude and abusive.

第一批操作员是男孩，他们因粗鲁和虐待而闻名。

The necessity of running from one board to another made for chaos in the telephone exchanges.

从一块板跑到另一块板的必要性造成了电话交换机的混乱。

Peg Chronister, Museum of Independent Telephony: I usually say, you tell me what it was like when you were a boy, and you get 12 of them together, what's going to happen?

Peg Chronister，独立电话博物馆：我通常会说，你告诉我你小时候是什么样子，然后你把 12 个电话放在一起，会发生什么？

It happened.

它发生了。

Pure bedlam.

纯粹的混乱。

We had wrestling matches, bean shooters, spit wads, rubber bands, running, yelling...

我们进行摔跤比赛、发射豆子、吐口水、橡皮筋、跑步、大喊大叫……

oops, I'm afraid even some cussing.

哎呀，恐怕还要骂人。

Venus Green, Scholar: You have to understand that the equipment now is really, really in its primitive state.

学者维纳斯·格林：你要明白，现在的装备真的非常非常原始。

There's all kinds of crackling, a lot of noise on the telephone system at this time, so, for two people to actually conduct a conversation, you needed an operator to transmit in a friendly way and make it less worrisome to the subscriber, less annoying.

此时电话系统里有各种各样的噼啪声，很多噪音，所以，为了两个人真正进行对话，你需要一个接线员以友好的方式进行传输，让用户不那么担心，不那么烦人。

And the young boy operators were not temperamentally suited for this.

而年轻的干员们在性格上并不适合这样做。

Narrator: The young men were soon replaced by young women, who did not swear or trade insults with frustrated customers, and were said to be faster than the men they replaced.

旁白：这些年轻男子很快就被年轻女子取代，她们不会对沮丧的顾客咒骂或谩骂，据说速度比被取代的男子更快。

American women, until then largely consigned to the schoolhouse and home, took over the day-to-day management of the switchboards.

在此之前，美国妇女大部分都在校舍和家里工作，她们接管了总机的日常管理。

Judith Moyer, Scholar: Certainly there's nothing about the telephone as a technology that says a woman must work at the switchboard and does a better job than a man.

朱迪思·莫耶（Judith Moyer），学者：当然，电话作为一种技术并没有规定女性必须在总机旁工作并且比男性做得更好。

But in the 19th century women were expected to be more docile, more amenable to rules.

但在 19 世纪，人们期望女性更加温顺，更加遵守规则。

Men or boys, if they were put under these extreme rules that women had to work under as operators, and didn't like it, they could vote with their feet and leave and go find another job that paid as well or better.

男人或男孩，如果他们被置于女性必须作为操作员工作的极端规则之下，并且不喜欢这样，他们可以用脚投票，离开并去找另一份薪水相同或更高的工作。

Whereas women having fewer options were more constrained, more likely to stay in that job and take it and work for less.

尽管选择较少的女性受到更多限制，但她们更有可能继续从事这份工作，并接受这份工作，并以更少的钱工作。

Narrator: These women worked twelve-hour shifts, processing hundreds of calls each hour, working the board with both hands at once.

旁白：这些妇女轮班十二小时，每小时处理数百个电话，同时用双手操作董事会。

They were expected to follow a strict code of dress and behavior; the company actually kept a "deportment card" to record transgressions.

他们必须遵守严格的着装和行为规范；该公司实际上保留了一张“举止卡”来记录违规行为。

Marie McGrath, Former Operator: Very, very strict at the board.

Marie McGrath，前运营商：董事会非常非常严格。

No talking.

不说话。

Don't dare look around.

不敢四处张望。

If you moved your head you'd have five supervisors at your position.

如果你移动你的头，你的位置上就会有五名主管。

Somebody would come along and say, "What do you want?"

有人会过来问：“你想要什么？”

Narrator: The operator was not allowed to cross her legs.

旁白：操作员不可以翘二郎腿。

She was forbidden to blow her nose or wipe her brow without permission.

未经允许，她不准擤鼻涕或擦眉毛。

Those who married were often discharged.

那些结婚的人常常被解雇。

Nevertheless, by 1910, New York Telephone alone had over 6000 women working its switchboards.

然而，到 1910 年，仅纽约电话公司就有超过 6000 名女性在其总机上工作。

Claude Fischer : It is said that if it hadn't been for some of the technological breakthroughs that simplified switchboard operation, the demand for operators would have gone up so rapidly that by the middle of the 20th Century, virtually every young woman in the United States would have to be employed as a telephone operator in order to run the system.

Claude Fischer：据说，如果没有一些简化总机操作的技术突破，对接线员的需求将会迅速增长，以至于到 20 世纪中叶，几乎美国每个年轻女性都必须受聘担任电话接线员才能运行该系统。

THE TELEPHONE TAKES OVER VO : It is my heart-warming and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us - the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage - may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss -- except the inventor of the telephone!

电话接管了VO：这是我温暖人心、拥抱世界的圣诞节希望和愿望，我们所有人——无论是高贵的、低贱的、富有的、贫穷的、受钦佩的、被鄙视的、爱的、恨的、文明的、野蛮的——最终都可以聚集在一个永远安息、和平与幸福的天堂——除了电话的发明者！

Narrator: Now connected to his local switchboard, and listed in the tiny Hartford directory under "Samuel Clemens," Mark Twain suffered from what would come to be known across America as "telephone troubles." The transmitter in his phone was too weak to overcome the static that exploded on the line.

旁白：马克·吐温现在连接到了当地的总机，并在哈特福德的小名录中以“塞缪尔·克莱门斯”的名义列出，他遭受了后来在美国被称为“电话麻烦”的困扰。他手机中的发射器太弱，无法克服线路上爆炸的静电。

Twain, like the rest of his countrymen, had to yell to be heard on the phone.

吐温和他的其他同胞一样，必须大喊大叫才能在电话中被听到。

John Vincent Boyer: Twain was generally a man with a pretty short fuse.

约翰·文森特·博耶：吐温通常是一个脾气暴躁的人。

And when he engaged this new technology, which had a lot of flaws, it wouldn't keep him from getting upset.

当他使用这项有很多缺陷的新技术时，他并没有感到沮丧。

In fact, he once said that he used the telephone to practice cursing.

事实上，他曾经说过，他用电话来练习咒骂。

Narrator: The complaints and frustrations of individuals like Twain helped shape the evolving and still crude telephone system.

旁白：像吐温这样的人的抱怨和沮丧帮助塑造了不断发展但仍然粗糙的电话系统。

Narrator: In New York City, Fulton Fish Market vendors demanded that Bell open phone lines at 5 A.M.

旁白：在纽约市，富尔顿鱼市场的商贩要求贝尔在凌晨 5 点开通电话线路。

instead of 8.

而不是 8。

They also protested the 6 P.M.

他们还对下午 6 点的事件表示抗议。

closing, beginning the movement to 24-hour service.

关闭，开始移动到24小时服务。

A doctor in Lowell, Massachusetts, who had become totally dependent on the telephone, began to worry what would happen to phone service as a yellow fever epidemic raged into town.

马萨诸塞州洛厄尔市的一位医生已经完全依赖电话，他开始担心随着黄热病疫情肆虐城镇，电话服务会发生什么变化。

Should all four of the town's operators get sick at once, their replacements couldn't possibly memorize the names of the town's 200 customers.

如果镇上所有四名经营者同时生病，他们的继任者不可能记住镇上 200 名顾客的名字。

He suggested that names be replaced by numbers .

他建议用数字代替名字。

As the telephone proliferated, the country's forests were being ravaged.

随着电话的普及，该国的森林遭到破坏。

In 1885, Vermont witnessed the cutting down of 45,000 of their best pine trees to be carted away for phone use.

1885 年，佛蒙特州砍伐了 45,000 棵最好的松树，并运走以供电话使用。

The new poles and lines invaded and cluttered the American landscape.

新的电线杆和线路侵入并扰乱了美国的景观。

Claude Fischer: In those years you basically needed a whole line, a whole wire for every conversation, and in some towns telephone poles would be carrying hundreds of wires, and it got to be so that this became a real issue for many towns.

克劳德·费舍尔：在那些年里，每次通话基本上都需要一整条线路、一整条电线，在一些城镇，电话杆上会承载数百根电线，这对许多城镇来说成为一个真正的问题。

It was an issue of safety in some cases.

在某些情况下这是一个安全问题。

And other places it was simply a matter of what was considered to be urban blight of the late 19th century.

而在其他地方，这只是被认为是 19 世纪末城市衰退的问题。

Narrator: The maze of wires grew worse and worse as electric light, power, and trolley lines appeared, creating a cacophony of interference on telephone lines.

旁白：随着电灯、电源和滑触线的出现，迷宫般的电线变得越来越糟糕，对电话线产生了刺耳的干扰声。

When callers did manage to get through, telephone crosstalk created a ghostly phone environment.

当呼叫者成功接通时，电话串扰创造了一个幽灵般的电话环境。

Parts of conversations jumped from line to line.

部分谈话从一行跳到另一行。

Bell executives endlessly found themselves facing new crises and unexpected assaults.

贝尔的高管发现自己不断面临新的危机和意想不到的攻击。

VO: It started at about midnight.

VO：大概是半夜开始的。

[...] Suddenly the whole city seemed to tremble as the storm swept down upon it with a grandeur and power that are indescribable.

……突然间，整座城市似乎都在颤抖，暴风雨以难以形容的气势和力量席卷而来。

[...] Signboards were torn from the fronts of buildings, roofs were stripped, [and] windows blown out.

[...]建筑物正面的招牌被撕毁，屋顶被掀翻，窗户被炸毁。

The New York Herald

纽约先驱报

Narrator: The winter of 1888 had been one of New York City's mildest, but overnight, on March 12, pedestrians and horses were frozen to death in the city streets by a giant snowstorm.

旁白：1888年的冬天是纽约市最温和的冬天之一，但一夜之间，3月12日，城市街道上的行人和马匹被一场巨大的暴风雪冻死。

The country's telephone system was torn by the teeth of the blizzard.

该国的电话系统被暴风雪撕裂。

Overloaded poles were twisted mercilessly by the wind; loose wires whistled through the air like whiplash.

超载的电线杆被风无情地扭曲；松散的电线像鞭子一样在空中呼啸而过。

The Blizzard of '88 inspired a frantic effort to perfect underground cable.

88 年的暴风雪激发了人们疯狂地努力完善地下电缆。

Later that year, America's largest cities watched as telephone poles magically disappeared from the busiest streets.

那年晚些时候，美国最大的城市目睹了电线杆从最繁忙的街道上神奇地消失。

The Bell Company had finally managed to solve most of its technical problems, but its patent would soon expire.

贝尔公司终于解决了大部分技术问题，但其专利即将到期。

VO: To-morrow is quite an event in the history of that marvelous discovery, the telephone.

画外音：明天是电话这一奇妙发现历史上的一件大事。

On that day [Bell's] patent [...] expires.

在那一天，[贝尔的]专利[...]到期。

[...] This naturally starts the world to thinking and there will be many companies to enter the field.

[...] 这自然引发了世界的思考，将会有很多公司进入这个领域。

[...] From Maine to California, [...] competition will meet one grand monopoly, entrenched at every point.

[...]从缅因州到加利福尼亚州，竞争将遇到一个在每个点都根深蒂固的大垄断。

The Cincinnati Enquirer, 1893 Narrator: The expiration of Bell's patent in 1893 subjected the monopoly to assaults from all sides.

《辛辛那提问询报》，1893 年 旁白：1893 年贝尔专利到期，其垄断地位遭到各方攻击。

Thousands of people who had not been able to afford the Bell system now had local entrepreneurs racing to sell them cheap phones.

成千上万原本买不起贝尔系统的人现在有了当地企业家竞相向他们出售廉价手机的机会。

The new competitors advertised themselves as the "home team," overthrowing an intrusive outside monopoly.

新的竞争对手标榜自己是“主队”，推翻了侵入性的外部垄断。

Communities were soon divided on class lines.

社区很快就按照阶级界限划分。

Typically, wealthy professionals, out of habit, continued to lease Bell phones, and middle-class users chose cheaper independent phones which — unlike Bell's instruments — could be purchased.

通常，富有的专业人士出于习惯，会继续租赁贝尔电话，而中产阶级用户则选择更便宜的独立电话，与贝尔的仪器不同，这些电话是可以购买的。

Narrator: Bell refused to interconnect with these other companies.

旁白：贝尔拒绝与这些其他公司互连。

St. Louis had two separate exchanges, Cleveland four.

圣路易斯有两个独立的交易所，克利夫兰有四个。

If a business wanted to prosper, all lines were needed.

如果一个企业想要繁荣，所有的线路都需要。

Telephone salesmen brushed off the problem: "We have two ears," one said, "why not therefore have two telephones?" Charles Pleasance, Author: The Bell companies were very unhappy, of course, because they wanted to maintain their...

电话推销员对这个问题不屑一顾：“我们有两只耳朵，”其中一位说，“为什么不拥有两部电话呢？”查尔斯·普莱森斯（Charles Pleasance），作者：贝尔公司当然非常不高兴，因为他们想维持他们的……

their monopoly.

他们的垄断。

They wanted all of the business in town, and they fought the independent companies in various ways.

他们想要城里的所有生意，并以各种方式与独立公司作斗争。

One was by lowering the rates so low that the independent company might have to go out of business.

其中之一是将利率降低到如此低的水平，以至于独立公司可能不得不倒闭。

Narrator: The independents then fought back by offering cheap party line service.

旁白：独立人士随后通过提供廉价的政党线路服务进行反击。

Multiple households would share a single wire...and private lives would become a little more public.

多个家庭将共用一根电线……私人生活将变得更加公开。

Claude Fischer: Party lines were very controversial an issue during the time.

克劳德·费舍尔：党派路线在当时是一个非常有争议的问题。

Many people look back on it with nostalgia, but it really was a mixed blessing for the people who had party lines.

很多人回想起来都怀有怀旧之情，但这对于那些有党派路线的人来说确实是喜忧参半。

There are many accounts of people who enjoyed picking up the telephone, and seeing what was going on on the line, and who was talking to who, and what the gossip of the town was.

有许多记载称，人们喜欢拿起电话，看看线路上发生了什么，谁在和谁通话，以及镇上的八卦是什么。

Mary Booth, Historian: You had no secrets, you never told any secrets over the telephone; they never remained secrets.

玛丽·布斯，历史学家：你没有秘密，你从来没有通过电话透露过任何秘密；他们从来都不是秘密。

I really didn't do it too often -- I was too busy -- but there were people who had very little else to do, and that was their...

我真的不经常这样做——我太忙了——但有些人没有什么其他事可做，那就是他们的……

that was their indoor sports.

那是他们的室内运动。

Narrator: The People's Telephone Company of Detroit tripled its business by taking advantage of the rural subscriber's apparent eagerness to eavesdrop.

旁白：底特律人民电话公司利用农村用户明显的窃听欲望，将业务量增加了两倍。

They offered party lines shared by as many as twenty homes.

他们提供了多达二十个家庭共享的派对路线。

It was an enormous success, subscribers delighted in eavesdropping and even got together to listen to banjo-playing on the line.

这是一个巨大的成功，订户们很高兴能偷听，甚至聚在一起听班卓琴的演奏。

Narrator: All across America, customers continued to adapt the telephone to fit their own needs.

旁白：在美国各地，客户不断改进电话以满足自己的需求。

An unexpected leap was made by a Kansas City undertaker, Almon Brown Strowger.

堪萨斯城的殡葬承办人阿尔蒙·布朗·斯特罗格（Almon Brown Strowger）实现了一次意想不到的飞跃。

Venus Green: Evidently one of his friends died, and he did not get the business.

Venus Green：显然他的一位朋友去世了，他没有得到这笔生意。

So he assumed it was because an operator had diverted the business to a competitor, and this induced him to invent a machine that would eliminate operators from the telephone service.

因此，他认为这是因为接线员将业务转移给了竞争对手，这促使他发明了一种机器，可以消除接线员的电话服务。

Narrator: Strowger invented not only the dial telephone, but went so far as to perfect an automatic switchboard to go with it.

旁白：斯特罗格不仅发明了拨号电话，还完善了与之配套的自动总机。

He then opened his own exchange in his home town of LaPorte, Indiana.

然后，他在家乡印第安纳州拉波特开设了自己的交易所。

It needed no operators.

它不需要操作员。

With innovations like the dial telephone, usage grew that much faster.

随着拨号电话等创新的出现，使用量增长得更快。

Narrator: By the turn of the century, there were more phones than bathtubs in America, and the "impractical toy" took center-stage in popular culture.

旁白：到了世纪之交，美国的电话数量已经超过了浴缸的数量，“不实用的玩具”成为了流行文化的中心舞台。

A light opera called Cupid's Telephone brought Bell's invention to Broadway — and the silent movies embraced the talking machine right from the beginning.

一部名为《丘比特的电话》的轻歌剧将贝尔的发明带到了百老汇，而无声电影从一开始就拥抱了有声机器。

Narrator: As the telephone began to reach the masses, grand quandaries concerning social etiquette were born.

旁白：随着电话开始普及到大众，有关社交礼仪的巨大难题也随之产生。

Was it, for instance, appropriate to extend invitations to one's friends via telephone instead of letter?

例如，通过电话而不是信件向朋友发出邀请是否合适？

Some wondered if this graceless device might not encourage questionable contact between unsupervised women and unscrupulous men.

一些人想知道这种粗鲁的装置是否会鼓励无人监管的女性和不择手段的男性之间发生可疑的接触。

While usage continued to expand, the independent companies got the bulk of the business, and Bell now owned less than one-half of the phones in America.

随着使用量不断扩大，独立公司获得了大部分业务，贝尔现在在美国拥有不到一半的电话。

It seemed the more service grew, the more ground Bell lost.

似乎服务越发展，贝尔失去的市场就越多。

Something had to be done, but again it would take massive amounts of capital.

必须采取一些措施，但这又需要大量资金。

J.P.

J.P.

Morgan, one of the richest men in the world, had for years had his eye on the Bell Company — now called AT&T.

摩根是世界上最富有的人之一，多年来一直关注贝尔公司（现称为 AT&T）。

The stage was now set for his entrance.

现在舞台已经准备好等待他登场了。

Louis Galambos: That's when J.P.

Louis Galambos：那时 J.P.

Morgan moved in.

摩根搬进来了。

He had access to the capital markets, and he had a plan for the reformulation of the Bell enterprise.

他有机会进入资本市场，并且有一个重组贝尔企业的计划。

He wanted to drive the Bell system toward the point where everyone would have access to a telephone, and it would be a Bell telephone.

他希望将贝尔系统推向每个人都可以使用电话的地步，而且这将是贝尔电话。

Narrator: He seized control of the company.

旁白：他控制了公司。

Morgan's ruthless approach to business was simply to buy his competitors or crush them.

摩根对商业的无情态度只是收购他的竞争对手或碾压他们。

By the time of Morgan's death in 1913, the independent movement was over.

1913 年摩根去世时，独立运动已经结束。

The company was well on its way to becoming a monopoly once more.

该公司正在再次成为垄断者。

CAN YOU HEAR ME, WATSON?

你能听到我说话吗，华生？

Narrator: The public clamored for long-distance service, but the challenge had frustrated inventors and businessmen for 39 years.

旁白：公众强烈要求长途服务，但这一挑战却让发明家和商人沮丧了39年。

The science required to send the human voice clear across the United States simply did not exist.

将人类的声音清晰地传遍美国所需的科学根本不存在。

The first breakthrough occurred with the invention of a signal amplifier, allowing Bell's New York lines to reach Chicago, 600 miles away.

第一个突破是信号放大器的发明，使贝尔的纽约线路能够到达 600 英里外的芝加哥。

So, in 1892, Alexander Graham Bell, then 45, was summoned from his Canadian retreat to place the first New York-to-Chicago call.

因此，1892 年，时年 45 岁的亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔 (Alexander Graham Bell) 从加拿大的隐居处被召唤，第一次拨打纽约至芝加哥的电话。

Bell was so taken with the event that it became the only time in his life that he allowed himself to be photographed speaking into his invention.

贝尔对这一事件如此着迷，以至于这是他一生中唯一一次允许自己被拍照谈论他的发明。

The wiring of America was well on its way, and "Hello, Operator, give me long-distance" entered the language.

美国的线路正在顺利进行，“你好，接线员，请给我打长途电话”进入了语言之中。

The Bell Company set long-distance phone rates at about one-fifth the price of a railroad ticket.

贝尔公司将长途电话费率定为火车票价格的五分之一左右。

In 1910 the New York-to-Philadelphia train fare was $4.50; a call was 80 cents.

1910 年，纽约到费城的火车票价为 4.50 美元；打电话80美分。

Demands that the phone reach further and further continued to grow, and finally -- by adapting a vacuum tube that was originally invented for radio -- AT&T had the equipment.

对电话覆盖范围越来越远的需求持续增长，最终，通过采用最初为无线电发明的真空管，AT&T 拥有了设备。

A line from New York to San Francisco was promised for January of 1915.

承诺于 1915 年 1 月开通从纽约到旧金山的线路。

As with the railroad and telegraph that had come before, connecting the two coasts would be an enormous task.

就像之前的铁路和电报一样，连接两个海岸将是一项艰巨的任务。

An army of workers, mostly on foot or horseback, invaded the mountains and deserts, braving rain, cold, and blizzards.

一支大多步行或骑马的工人大军冒着雨、寒冷和暴风雪侵入山区和沙漠。

The mammoth project took over a year.

这个庞大的项目历时一年多。

14,000 miles of copper wire and 130,000 telephone poles were needed to link the country.

连接全国需要 14,000 英里的铜线和 130,000 根电话杆。

AT&T's management knew how risky a public coast-to-coast call could be.

AT&T 的管理层知道从东海岸到西海岸的公共通话可能存在多大风险。

They hired 15,000 men -- 5 men for every mile -- spaced out across the country, to be on the ready to fix any problems on the line.

他们雇佣了 15,000 名员工——每英里 5 名员工——分散在全国各地，随时准备解决生产线上的任何问题。

Once again, Alexander Graham Bell was lured out of retirement.

亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔再一次被引诱退出退休生活。

To insure the success of the event, Bell -- now considered by telephone executives to be a senile deaf old man was asked to read a prepared script.

为了确保活动的成功，贝尔——现在被电话主管认为是一位老年聋哑老人——被要求朗读准备好的剧本。

Thomas Watson would be in San Francisco to take his call.

托马斯·沃森将前往旧金山接听他的电话。

There is one of the marvels of telephone achievement [...] that must always hold first place in my memory.

在我的记忆中，电话成就的一项奇迹必须始终占据首位。

[...] That was the transmission of speech for the first time from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

[...]这是第一次从大西洋到太平洋的语音传输。

Narrator: On January 25, 1915, in New York, Alexander Graham Bell made a 23-minute call to San Francisco.

旁白：1915 年 1 月 25 日，在纽约，亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔 (Alexander Graham Bell) 给旧金山打了一个 23 分钟的电话。

Listening in from his exclusive retreat over a specially constructed line was AT&T's President, Theodore Vail.

AT&T 总裁西奥多·韦尔 (Theodore Vail) 在他的专属静修处通过一条特制线路收听了通话。

Susan Cheever : The AT&T guys -- the men in suits who ran AT&T and Bell by this point -- were not at all like Watson and Bell, and they were very worried that these two old geezers were going to get on the phone, and not be able to talk, or drop the telephones, and just somehow mess up, so they wrote a script.

苏珊·奇弗（Susan Cheever）：AT&T 的那些人——当时管理着 AT&T 和贝尔的西装革履的人——一点也不像沃森和贝尔，他们非常担心这两个老家伙接电话后无法通话，或者挂掉电话，然后不知何故搞砸了，所以他们写了一个脚本。

So these two old friends got on the phone, and Bell of course says, "Hoy, Hoy, Watson," and Watson said, "Hoy," and they threw away the script, and just started having a conversation, a coast-to-coast conversation.

于是这两个老朋友打电话了，贝尔当然说：“嘿，嘿，沃森，”沃森说，“嘿，”然后他们就扔掉了剧本，开始了一场对话，一场从东海岸到西海岸的对话。

Narrator: Then, in a stunt that turned back the clock, Bell continued the call on a duplicate of his original Centennial Telephone -- the same device used in Philadelphia almost four decades earlier.

旁白：然后，在一个让时光倒转的特技中，贝尔继续用他原来的百年电话的复制品打电话——与近四十年前费城使用的设备相同。

Robert Bruce : So when the time came, Bell said, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." And Watson replied, "Mr. Bell, I will, but it would take me a week now."

罗伯特·布鲁斯：所以当时间到了时，贝尔说：“沃森先生，过来，我想见你。”沃森回答说：“贝尔先生，我会的，但现在需要一周时间。”

Narrator: The transcontinental call was such a great success, it was commemorated by the Ziegfield Follies' "Hello, Frisco," became the most popular tune of 1915.

旁白：这次跨越大陆的呼叫取得了巨大的成功，齐格菲尔德歌舞团的“你好，弗里斯科”成为了 1915 年最流行的歌曲来纪念它。

It was a thrilling moment to me when I realized that Bell's first crude telephone and that first wire were again bringing his voice to me across the continent with that first sentence ever transmitted by electricity.

当我意识到贝尔的第一部简陋电话和第一根电线再次将他的声音穿过大陆传给我时，这是有史以来通过电力传输的第一句话，这对我来说是一个激动人心的时刻。

And fate decreed those words should be the last he ever spoke to me.

命运注定这句话应该是他对我说的最后一句话。

Narrator: The wiring of America was complete.

旁白：美国的线路已经完成。

It had taken only 39 years to go from a single telephone in Boston to 11 million nationwide.

从波士顿只有一部电话到全国拥有 1100 万部电话，只用了 39 年的时间。

Thomas Edison observed that the invention had "annihilated time and space, and brought the human family in closer touch."

托马斯·爱迪生观察到，这项发明“消灭了时间和空间，使人类大家庭的联系更加紧密”。

When he turned 70, Bell stated that "recognition for my work with the deaf has always been more pleasing than the recognition of my work with the telephone." But it was the telephone that had transformed America.

70 岁时，贝尔表示，“对我在聋人方面的工作的认可总是比对我在电话方面的工作的认可更令人高兴。”但改变美国的是电话。

As a final tribute to Bell, upon his death in 1922 at age 75, the nation's telephones all stopped ringing for one full minute.

作为对贝尔的最后致敬，贝尔于 1922 年去世，享年 75 岁，全国的电话都停止响了整整一分钟。

The phone has certainly evolved over the past 150 years, especially in appearance.

在过去的 150 年里，手机确实发生了变化，尤其是在外观方面。

We invite you to take this tour of phone design.

我们邀请您参加这次手机设计之旅。

Inventions include the can opener, blue jeans, frisbee, feather duster, gas mask, oil burner and blood bank.

发明包括开罐器、蓝色牛仔裤、飞盘、鸡毛掸子、防毒面具、燃油炉和血库。

From Benjamin Franklin's lightning rod to the Hubble Space Telescope, this timeline covers some of America's technological innovations and inventions.

从本杰明·富兰克林的避雷针到哈勃太空望远镜，这条时间表涵盖了美国的一些技术创新和发明。

Find out more about Alexander Graham Bell, Elisha Gray, Thomas Alva Edison and Thomas A.

了解更多关于亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔、伊丽莎·格雷、托马斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生和托马斯·A.

Watson

沃森

Joseph Henry lays the groundwork for the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone and the telephone goes national.

约瑟夫·亨利为电话奠定了基础，亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔发明了电话，电话走向全国。