The selfie stick didn't always look like this. The original patent was filed all the way back in 1984, before cell phones were ubiquitous. Before the word "selfie" was even coined, let alone in the dictionary. The first selfie stick was neither as elegant nor as successful as the latest models.
自拍桿并不是一直都長這樣的。在1984年手機還未普及之時，就有人首次為自拍桿申請了專利。當時，英文中還未出現“自拍”這個單詞，更別說將其錄入字典了。與最新自拍桿相比，第一臺自拍桿既不美觀也不受歡迎。

The first selfie stick was invented by Hiroshi Ueda and Yujiro Mima, was called a "telescopic extender for supporting compact camera," and looked a little something like this:
第一臺自拍桿由上田宏（Hiroshi Ueda）和美馬有二郎（Yujiro Mima）發明，起名為“袖珍相機支撐式伸縮擴展器”，樣子有點類似下圖：

Not so elegant. Since there weren't any cell phones with cameras, let alone smartphones with front-facing digital ones, Ueda's original product included a mirror so the user could see what they looked like as they took the photo.
不怎么美觀。當時的手機沒有攝像頭，更不用提智能手機的前置攝像頭了，所以上田宏的自拍桿只能加上一面鏡子，這樣拍照時人們就能看到攝像頭中自己的樣子。

Ueda, who worked for camera company Minolta when he invented the extender, held the patent until it ran out in 2003 according to the BBC.
據BBC報道，發明這臺擴展器時，上田宏在日本美能達(Minolta)公司工作，這項專利一直為他持有，直到2003年專利失效。

"My idea came too early, but that's just one of those things." Ueda told the BBC. "I patented about 300 ideas, so that was just one of them. We call it a 3am invention - it arrived too early."
接受BBC采訪時，上田宏說：“我的這項發明出現得太早了。不過我還有大約300項發明專利，它只是其中之一。我們稱它為‘凌晨3點的發明’，它到來得太早了。”

In 2005 another inventor, Wayne Fromm, brought the selfie stick back with his patent for an "apparatus for supporting a camera and method for using the apparatus." He called his product Quik Pod.
而2005年另一位發明者韋恩·弗洛姆為“相機支撐器和支撐器的使用方法”申請了專利，再一次將自拍桿展示在世人面前。他稱自己的發明為“快捷豆莢”（Quick Pod）。

Fromm feels similarly to Ueda, in that he believes his product came at the wrong time, before smartphones were everywhere. “The selfie stick today would not exist if it was not for me,” Fromm told ReadWrite. Fromm is currently suing many different selfie stick creators for copyright infringement.
弗洛姆與上田宏一樣，覺得當時智能機還未流行，自己的發明可謂是生不逢時。他告訴讀寫網（ReadWrite）：“如果沒有我的發明，現今的自拍桿不可能問世。”弗洛姆認為眾多自拍桿的發明者侵犯了自己的專利權，正在提起上訴。

Vocabulary

apparatus 裝置

（譯者：zjm2582185 編輯：齊磊 彭娜）