Lesson 1
Elementary Schools in Early America
What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America— breakthroughs such as the telegraph, the steamboat and the weaving machine?
Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country’s excellent elementary schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors; and above all the American genius for nonverbal,“spatial” thinking about things technological.
Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics, especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry.
Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage. As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported, “With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline, the American boy develops rapidly into the skilled workman.”
A further stimulus to invention came from the “premium” system, which preceded our patent system and for years ran parallel with it. This approach, originated abroad, offered inventors medals, cash prizes and other incentives.
In the United States, multitudes of premiums for new devices were awarded at country fairs and at the industrial fairs in major cities. Americans flocked to these fairs to admire the new machines and thus to renew their faith in the beneficence of technological advance.
Given this optimistic approach to technological innovation, the American worker took readily to that special kind of nonverbal thinking required in mechanical technology. As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out, “A technologist thinks about objects that cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in his mind by a visual, nonverbal process. The designer and the inventor are able to assemble and manipulate in their minds devices that as yet do not exist.”
This nonverbal “spatial” thinking can be just as creative as painting and writing. Robert Fulton once wrote, “The mechanic should sit down among levers, screws, wedges, wheels, etc., like a poet among the letters of the alphabet, considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea.”
When all these shaping forces — schools, open attitudes, the premium system, a genius for spatial thinking — interacted with one another on the rich U.S. mainland, they produced that American characteristic, emulation. Today that word implies mere imitation. But in earlier times it meant a friendly but competitive striving for fame and excellence.
名人名言
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
— Joseph Addison
A college diploma does not mean you are educated. Quite the contrary, it means that you have been opened up to a perpetual state of ignorance and thus a lifelong hunger for more — more ideas, more knowledge, more good thoughts, more challenges, more of everything.
— James Lehrer
早期的美國(guó)小學(xué)
是什么導(dǎo)致了美國(guó)早期重要發(fā)明的涌現(xiàn)——諸如電報(bào)、蒸汽船和織布機(jī)這樣的突破(breakthrough)?
在諸多形成因素中，我要特別指出如下因素：美國(guó)優(yōu)秀的小學(xué)；歡迎新技術(shù)的勞動(dòng)力；給發(fā)明者以獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)的制度；尤其是美國(guó)人對(duì)技術(shù)性事物的非語言的、“空間式”思維的天才。
為什么要提到小學(xué)呢?因?yàn)槿窟@些學(xué)校，我們?cè)缙诘臋C(jī)械工人才會(huì)能讀會(huì)寫(literate)，并精通算術(shù)以及一部分幾何和三角學(xué)；在新英格蘭和沿大西洋中部諸州尤其是這樣。
敏銳的外國(guó)觀察家認(rèn)為美國(guó)人的適應(yīng)性和創(chuàng)造性得益于這種教育的優(yōu)勢(shì)。正如一?853年訪問過這里的英國(guó)委員會(huì)成員所記載的，“通過徹底的學(xué)校紀(jì)律的訓(xùn)練，美國(guó)孩子很快成長(zhǎng)為熟練的工人?！?BR> 對(duì)發(fā)明的進(jìn)一步激勵(lì)（stimulus）來自于“獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)”制度，這種制度在專利(patent)制度之前產(chǎn)生，并與其共存了數(shù)年。這種起源于（originated）國(guó)外的方法，為發(fā)明者提供獎(jiǎng)?wù)?、現(xiàn)金和其它獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)。
在美國(guó)，為新設(shè)備提供的眾多(multitudes)獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)在主要城市的國(guó)家展覽會(huì)和行業(yè)展覽會(huì)上頒發(fā)。美國(guó)人蜂擁到這些展覽會(huì)上欣賞新機(jī)器，這使他們更加堅(jiān)信技術(shù)進(jìn)步的好處。
在技術(shù)創(chuàng)造受到的這種鼓勵(lì)下，美國(guó)工人很容易就掌握了機(jī)械技術(shù)中所要求的那種獨(dú)特的非語言式的思維方式。正如尤金·弗格森所指出的那樣，“一位技術(shù)家所考慮的東西是難以用語言加以確切的描述的；他腦中用來處理它們的是一個(gè)視覺的而非語言的（nonverbal)過程。設(shè)計(jì)者和發(fā)明者能夠在他們的腦子里把尚未存在的設(shè)備安裝和操作(manipulate)起來?！?BR> 這種非語言的“空間”思維可以具有像繪畫和寫作一樣的創(chuàng)造性。羅勃特·富爾頓曾經(jīng)說過，“技工應(yīng)該在杠桿、螺釘、楔子、車輪等之間坐下，像一個(gè)詩人處在字母表的字母中一樣，把它們視作他的思想的展示，一種新的排列就會(huì)傳遞一種新的思想。”
當(dāng)所有這些形成因素——學(xué)校，開放式態(tài)度，獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)制度，空間思維的天賦——在富有的美國(guó)大陸上相互作用時(shí)，它們產(chǎn)生了美國(guó)特征：競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。如今這個(gè)單詞意味著純粹的模仿（imitation）。但是在早些時(shí)候，它意味著為出人頭地而進(jìn)行的友好而激烈的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。
名人名言
教育之于人的心靈，猶如雕刻之于大理石。
—— 約瑟夫·艾迪生
大學(xué)文憑并不意味著你受教育了。正相反，這意味著你已走進(jìn)永久的（perpetual）無知，所以要用一生去追求更多——更多的想法，更多的知識(shí)，更多的好思想，更多的挑戰(zhàn)，任何事物都知道更多。
—— 詹姆士·萊勒
Elementary Schools in Early America
What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America— breakthroughs such as the telegraph, the steamboat and the weaving machine?
Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country’s excellent elementary schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors; and above all the American genius for nonverbal,“spatial” thinking about things technological.
Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics, especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry.
Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage. As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported, “With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline, the American boy develops rapidly into the skilled workman.”
A further stimulus to invention came from the “premium” system, which preceded our patent system and for years ran parallel with it. This approach, originated abroad, offered inventors medals, cash prizes and other incentives.
In the United States, multitudes of premiums for new devices were awarded at country fairs and at the industrial fairs in major cities. Americans flocked to these fairs to admire the new machines and thus to renew their faith in the beneficence of technological advance.
Given this optimistic approach to technological innovation, the American worker took readily to that special kind of nonverbal thinking required in mechanical technology. As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out, “A technologist thinks about objects that cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in his mind by a visual, nonverbal process. The designer and the inventor are able to assemble and manipulate in their minds devices that as yet do not exist.”
This nonverbal “spatial” thinking can be just as creative as painting and writing. Robert Fulton once wrote, “The mechanic should sit down among levers, screws, wedges, wheels, etc., like a poet among the letters of the alphabet, considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea.”
When all these shaping forces — schools, open attitudes, the premium system, a genius for spatial thinking — interacted with one another on the rich U.S. mainland, they produced that American characteristic, emulation. Today that word implies mere imitation. But in earlier times it meant a friendly but competitive striving for fame and excellence.
名人名言
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
— Joseph Addison
A college diploma does not mean you are educated. Quite the contrary, it means that you have been opened up to a perpetual state of ignorance and thus a lifelong hunger for more — more ideas, more knowledge, more good thoughts, more challenges, more of everything.
— James Lehrer
早期的美國(guó)小學(xué)
是什么導(dǎo)致了美國(guó)早期重要發(fā)明的涌現(xiàn)——諸如電報(bào)、蒸汽船和織布機(jī)這樣的突破(breakthrough)?
在諸多形成因素中，我要特別指出如下因素：美國(guó)優(yōu)秀的小學(xué)；歡迎新技術(shù)的勞動(dòng)力；給發(fā)明者以獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)的制度；尤其是美國(guó)人對(duì)技術(shù)性事物的非語言的、“空間式”思維的天才。
為什么要提到小學(xué)呢?因?yàn)槿窟@些學(xué)校，我們?cè)缙诘臋C(jī)械工人才會(huì)能讀會(huì)寫(literate)，并精通算術(shù)以及一部分幾何和三角學(xué)；在新英格蘭和沿大西洋中部諸州尤其是這樣。
敏銳的外國(guó)觀察家認(rèn)為美國(guó)人的適應(yīng)性和創(chuàng)造性得益于這種教育的優(yōu)勢(shì)。正如一?853年訪問過這里的英國(guó)委員會(huì)成員所記載的，“通過徹底的學(xué)校紀(jì)律的訓(xùn)練，美國(guó)孩子很快成長(zhǎng)為熟練的工人?！?BR> 對(duì)發(fā)明的進(jìn)一步激勵(lì)（stimulus）來自于“獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)”制度，這種制度在專利(patent)制度之前產(chǎn)生，并與其共存了數(shù)年。這種起源于（originated）國(guó)外的方法，為發(fā)明者提供獎(jiǎng)?wù)?、現(xiàn)金和其它獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)。
在美國(guó)，為新設(shè)備提供的眾多(multitudes)獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)在主要城市的國(guó)家展覽會(huì)和行業(yè)展覽會(huì)上頒發(fā)。美國(guó)人蜂擁到這些展覽會(huì)上欣賞新機(jī)器，這使他們更加堅(jiān)信技術(shù)進(jìn)步的好處。
在技術(shù)創(chuàng)造受到的這種鼓勵(lì)下，美國(guó)工人很容易就掌握了機(jī)械技術(shù)中所要求的那種獨(dú)特的非語言式的思維方式。正如尤金·弗格森所指出的那樣，“一位技術(shù)家所考慮的東西是難以用語言加以確切的描述的；他腦中用來處理它們的是一個(gè)視覺的而非語言的（nonverbal)過程。設(shè)計(jì)者和發(fā)明者能夠在他們的腦子里把尚未存在的設(shè)備安裝和操作(manipulate)起來?！?BR> 這種非語言的“空間”思維可以具有像繪畫和寫作一樣的創(chuàng)造性。羅勃特·富爾頓曾經(jīng)說過，“技工應(yīng)該在杠桿、螺釘、楔子、車輪等之間坐下，像一個(gè)詩人處在字母表的字母中一樣，把它們視作他的思想的展示，一種新的排列就會(huì)傳遞一種新的思想。”
當(dāng)所有這些形成因素——學(xué)校，開放式態(tài)度，獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)制度，空間思維的天賦——在富有的美國(guó)大陸上相互作用時(shí)，它們產(chǎn)生了美國(guó)特征：競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。如今這個(gè)單詞意味著純粹的模仿（imitation）。但是在早些時(shí)候，它意味著為出人頭地而進(jìn)行的友好而激烈的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。
名人名言
教育之于人的心靈，猶如雕刻之于大理石。
—— 約瑟夫·艾迪生
大學(xué)文憑并不意味著你受教育了。正相反，這意味著你已走進(jìn)永久的（perpetual）無知，所以要用一生去追求更多——更多的想法，更多的知識(shí)，更多的好思想，更多的挑戰(zhàn)，任何事物都知道更多。
—— 詹姆士·萊勒