The Story of Edison

Edison only attended elementary school for three months in his life. His knowledge was obtained through his mother's teaching and self-study. His success should be attributed to his mother's understanding and patient teachings from an early age. Edison, who was originally considered an imbecile, became a world-famous "invention king" when he grew up.

Edison has been curious about many things since he was a child, and he likes to experiment until he understands the truth. When he grew up, he devoted himself to research and invention based on his interests in this area. He established a laboratory in New Jersey and invented more than 2,000 things in his lifetime such as the electric light, the telegraph, the phonograph, the movie player, the magnetic separator, the crusher and so on. Edison's strong research spirit enabled him to make significant contributions to improving human life style.

"Waste, the greatest waste is time." Edison often said to his assistant. "Life is too short, you have to think of more ways to do more things with less time."

One day, Edison was working in the laboratory, and he handed his assistant an empty box without a lamp. Glass bulb, said: "You measure the capacity of the bulb." He lowered his head to work again.

After a long time, he asked: "What's the capacity?" He didn't hear the answer. He turned around and saw the assistant holding a soft ruler to measure the circumference and slope of the light bulb, and took the measured number. He leaned over the table and calculated. He said: "Time, time, why does it take so much time?" Edison came over, picked up the empty light bulb, filled it with water, handed it to the assistant, and said: "Pour the water inside into the measuring cup, immediately Tell me its capacity."

The assistant immediately read the number.

Edison said: "This is such an easy measurement method. It is accurate and saves time. How could you not think of it? If you still calculate it, wouldn't it be a waste of time?"

The assistant blushed.

Edison murmured: "Life is too short, too short. Save time and do more things!"

Counting all the people who have made great achievements at home and abroad in ancient and modern times, none of them have made great achievements. Time is like gold. There is a saying in the ancient book "Huainanzi": "The sage does not value the jade of an inch, but the shade of an inch." There is such a poem in "Long Song Xing" of Han Dynasty Yuefu: "When hundreds of rivers reach the sea from the east, when will they return to the west? A young man does not work hard. , The boss is just sad. "Tao Yuanming of the Jin Dynasty also had a poem about cherishing time: "The prime years will never come again, and it is difficult to come back in time. Time should be encouraged. Time waits for no one." There is more in the poem "White Deer Cave" by Wang Zhenbai in the late Tang Dynasty. An inch of time, an inch of gold" is a wonderful metaphor. The French writer Balzac compared time to capital. The German poet Goethe regarded time as his own property. Mr. Lu Xun had a deeper understanding of time. He said: "Time is life. Wasting other people's time for no reason is actually tantamount to seeking money and killing people." After Faraday became middle-aged, in order to save time, he devoted his whole body and mind to scientific creation, strictly controlled himself, and refused to participate in All non-scientific activities, even resigning from the position of President of the Royal Academy. In order not to cause visitors to delay their visit, Madame Curie never placed chairs in the reception room. When the 76-year-old Einstein fell ill, an old friend asked him what he wanted. He said, "I just hope I have a few hours to put some manuscripts together."

Most contemporary teenagers are envious of the affluent life in the United States and Japan, as well as their cars and electrical appliances. However, do you know how much they cherish their time? As early as 200 years ago, before the United States became independent, Franklin, the founder of the American Enlightenment, scientist, industrialist and leader of the independence movement, included two sentences in his book "The Road to Wealth": There is a widely circulated and resonant motto in the United States: "Time is life" and "Time is money". In the early 1990s, a Chinese youth delegation from Liaoning attended a conference in Japan. Before going abroad, the leader prepared a thick stack of speeches. However, the meeting program handed over by Japanese officials read: "The time for China's speech: 10:17:20 to 18:20 "The speech time is only one minute. This may seem unbelievable to those who "have a cup of tea, a cigarette, and a newspaper to read for a long time," but in Japan it is extremely common. From workers to scholars, Japanese people all have a very strong sense of time. Their basic criterion for assessing the incompetence of workers in a position is the amount of labor per unit time while ensuring quality. The time is usually accurate to the second.