2017年高二英语人教版选修8素材：资源链接 Unit3　Inventorsandinventions Word版含解析.docVIP

资源链接 Adding Machine William Seward Burroughs,inventor of the first workable adding machine,was born in rural New York in 1855.In the 1870s he was working as a bank clerk at the Cayuga County National Bank in Auburn,New York where he became interested in solving the problem of creating an adding machine.There had been a number of earlier prototypes,but in inexperienced users hands,those that existed would sometimes give incorrect,and at times outrageous,answers. In St.Louis,Missouri in the early 1880s,Burroughs was working for the Boyer Machine Company where he began designing his own adding machine prototype.His design included a 揹ash pot,?or a mechanism that regulated the pull on the machine’s handle.He was granted a patent for the device in 1888.Two years before the patent was issued he founded the American Arithmometer Company with three other men—Thomas Metcalfe,R.M.Scruggs,and W.C.Metcalfe—to produce and sell the machine.The straight adding and listing machine Burroughs had invented was the company’s only product;its purchase price was $475.00. By 1887,American Arithmometer had manufactured 50 machines.However,Burroughs was the only one who could operate them correctly.Thus,the machines were recalled and Burroughs invented a corrective automatic device.In 1895,sales climbed to 284 machines.That year Burroughs Adding and Registering Company was established in Nottingham,England,marking the companys first entry into the international marketplace. Between1895and1900,business really took off.Sales jumped to 972 machines.Sadly,Burroughs,who had suffered a lifetime of chronic health problems,died in Citronelle,Alabama,on Sept.14,1898.He was just 43 years of age.William Joseph E.Boyer,a St.Louis manufacturer who had supported Burroughs efforts for many years,became president of the American Arithmometer Company in 1902.In 1904 the company moved to Detroit where it built a 70 000 square foot plant.That year the company’s name was changed to the Burroughs Addi