Since August 2005, when visits to an Eritrean village prompted him to research global access to artificial light, Mark Bent, 49, a former foreign service officer and Houston oilman, has spent $250,000 to develop and manufacture a solar-powered flashlight.

自從2005年8月，49歲的班特走訪厄立垂亞村落，促使他開始研究全球使用人造光，這位前外籍軍官及休士頓石油商，已投入25萬美元開發及製造太陽能手電筒。

His invention gives up to seven hours of light on a daily solar recharge and can last nearly three years between replacements of three AA batteries costing 80 cents.

他這項發明每天用太陽能再充電，可以有7小時的照明，而且只要花80美分換三個AA電池，就可以維持將近三年。

Over the last year, he said, he and corporate benefactors like Exxon Mobil have donated 10,500 flashlights to United Nations refugee camps and African aid charities.

他說，去年他和艾克森美孚石油等贊助企業已經捐贈10,500支手電筒給聯合國難民營及非洲人道救援組織。

Here at Fugnido, at one of six camps housing more than 21,000 refugees 550 miles west of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Peter Gatkuoth, a Sudanese refugee, wrote on "the importance of Solor."

在伊索匹亞首都阿迪斯阿貝巴以西550哩的夫尼多六個難民營之一，收容了21,000多名難民，其中一名蘇丹難民賈庫斯曾寫下「太陽能的重要性」。 "In case of thief, we open our solor and the thief ran away," he wrote. "If there is a sick person at night we will took him with the solor to health center." Others said lights were hung above school desks for children and adults to study after the day's work.

「如果有小偷，只要打開太陽能手電筒，小偷就嚇跑了，」他寫道。「如果晚上有人生病，我們可以用太陽能手電筒帶他去保健中心。」其他人則說，手電筒懸掛在書桌上方，供學童和成人忙完一天工作後照明。

Bent's efforts have drawn praise from the United Nations, Africare, Rice University and others.

班特的努力已經贏得聯合國、非洲照護、萊斯大學等組織贊美。

Mr. Bent, a former Marine and Navy pilot, served under diplomatic titles in volatile countries like Angola, Bosnia, Nigeria and Somalia in the early 1990s. In 2001 he went to work as the general manager of an oil exploration team off the coast of the Red Sea in Eritrea, for a company later acquired by the French oil giant Perenco. But the oil business, he said, "didn't satisfy my soul."

班特曾擔任陸戰隊和海軍飛行員，1990年代初 以外交官名義在安哥拉、波士尼亞、奈及利亞及索馬利亞等動亂國家服役。2001年，他為一家後被法國石油巨擘Perenco公司收購的公司，到厄利垂亞紅海外的石油探勘隊擔任總經理，但他說：「石油業無法填滿我的心靈。」

With a little research, he discovered that close to two billion people around the world go without affordable access to light. He worked with researchers, engineers and manufacturers, he said, at the Department of Energy, several American universities, and even NASA before finding a factory in China to produce a durable, cost-effective solar-powered flashlight whose shape was inspired by his wife's shampoo bottle.

他稍作研究，發現全球有近20億人供不起電。他說，他和好幾所美國大學能源系的研究人員、工程師和製造人員，乃至於太空總署合作，再到中國大陸找一家工廠，生產符合成本效益的永備太陽能手電筒，外形靈感得自他太太洗髮精的瓶子。

The light has a narrow solar panel on one side that charges the batteries, which can last between 750 and 1,000 nights, and uses the more efficient light-emitting diodes, or L.E.D.s, to cast its light. "L.E.D.s used to be very expensive," Mr. Bent said. "But in the last 18 months they've become cheaper, so distributing them on a widespread scale is possible."

這個手電筒一側有個狹窄的太陽能板為電池充電，可以維持750到1,000個夜晚，並使用比較節能的發光二極體照明。班特說：「發光二極體原本很貴，還好過去18個月已經降價，才可能大規模分送。

《詞解》
Flashlight手電筒
oilman石油商
recharge 再充電
dump 垃圾場
L.E.D. 發光二極體