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Flying Saucers: Take Over the Earth 「飞盘」征服地球!

详细资料: 创建于 2005年9月08日; 最后更新于 2024年5月25日; 发布于 2011年9月14日; 作者：Mike Lee; 点击数：340

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At beaches and parks around the world, people are tossing around plastic discs that fly and hover in the air. One of the most popular toys in the world, the Frisbee celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. However, the history of these flying discs began even earlier.

在世界各地的海滩上和公园里，人们都在投掷一种会在空中飞行及盘旋的塑料圆盘。飞盘是世界上最受欢迎的玩具之一，今年要庆祝其问世大五十周年纪念。然而，这些会飞的圆盘发源却是更早之前。

In the early 1900s, the employees of Frisbie’s Pies, a bakery in the eastern U.S., flung pie pans back and forth to each other during their breaks. These pans were made of tin, and as you can imagine, they were a little dangerous to catch. Then, in 1948, two veterans named Walter Morrison and Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the pie pan which flew further and more accurately. Unfortunately, the product, called “The Flying Saucer,” didn’t catch on and their partnership ended.

二十世纪初期，位于美国东部一家叫做「富丽司比支派」的烘焙坊，有员工会在闲暇之余来回互相投掷烤派的平底锅。这些锅子是锡制的，可以想见接起来会有点危险。然后，在1948年时，瓦特莫里森和华伦弗兰斯赛尼两名老兵发明了塑料材质的烤派锅，可以飞得更远、更准。不幸的是，这个取名为「飞碟」的产品并没有带动流行，两人的合作关系也因而结束。

In 1955, Morrison took another shot at marketing another patented flying plastic disc. He called it “The Pluto Platter,” capitalizing on the sudden surge of UFO sightings in the United States. The toy company Wham-O bought the rights to produce Morrison’s flying disc and renamed them “Frisbees.” Since then, Wham-O has sold over 200 million Frisbees, making it one of the most popular toys ever.

1955年，莫里森再次尝试销售另一个取得专利的塑料飞盘。他将这个飞盘取名为「冥王星之盘」，目的是为了赶搭美国境内突然有很多人声称有目击到幽浮的热潮。一家叫做辉魔的玩具公司买下了莫里森的飞盘制造权，并且将它重新命名为「富丽司比」(就是现在飞盘的英文名)。从那时至今，辉魔已卖出了两亿多个飞盘，而飞盘也成为有史以来最畅销的玩具之一。

－by Ben Andrews

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