雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第4章:彼岸新星(97)
These wheels were ingeniously arranged in meshing groups, and mounted on a central axis in such a way that the turning of a large handle would set them in simultaneous motion.
The construction of the machine demanded a great deal of highly accurate gear-cutting to make this possible.
要想製造這臺機器，必須有非常精密的齒輪製造工藝。Donald MacPhail drew up a blueprint of the design,44 dated 17 July 1939.
唐納德·麥克菲爾繪製了設計圖紙，日期是1939年7月17日。
But Alan did not leave the engineering work to him.
但是艾倫並沒有把製造工作交給他。In fact his room, in the summer of 1939, was liable to be found with a sort of jigsaw puzzle of gear wheels across the floor.
實際上，在1939年夏天，艾倫自己的房間變成了一個齒輪迷陣。Kenneth Harrison, now a Fellow, was invited in for a drink and found it in this state.
現在已是研究員的肯尼斯·哈里森有一次被他邀請去喝酒，並看到了這些。Alan tried and lamentably failed to explain what it was all for.
艾倫給他解釋了，但是沒有說清這些到底是什麼，It was certainly far from obvious that the motion of these wheels would say anything about the regularity with which the prime numbers thinned out, in their billions of billions out to infinity.
很難說清這些無言的齒輪，要如何揭示幾億億直至無窮的素數規律。Alan made a start on doing the actual gear-cutting, humping the blanks along to the engineering department in a rucksack, and spurning an offer of help from a research student.
艾倫開始製造齒輪，他用帆布揹包把原料運到工程系，而且拒絕了一位研究生的幫助。Champ lent a hand in grinding some of the wheels, which were kept in a suitcase in Alan's room, much impressing Bob when he came down from his school at Hale in August.
晨佩儂也幫他磨了一些齒輪，這些都放在艾倫的房間。8月時鮑勃前來拜訪，見到這些，大爲驚訝。Kenneth Harrison had been much amazed, for he well knew from conversations with Alan that a pure mathematician worked in a symbolic world and not with things.
肯尼斯·哈里森也感到非常吃驚，因爲他經常與艾倫交談，他非常瞭解，這位純數學家是在符號世界中工作的，而不是與物理實體打交道。
