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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 4 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1892 | 5 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 8 |
| 1895 | 5 |
28 stories matching devic
- The Dead Horses That Taught Tacoma How to Raise Sunken Ships
A Tacoma patent company says its collapsible air bags can lift wrecks from the sea floor—a trick supposedly inspired by a bloated boatload of horses in the Ohio River. Investors are already fighting over the fortune.
- The 1889 Dream of Instantaneous Picture Transmission
A Seattle man claims to have invented an electrical device capable of sending handwritten notes and drawings over telegraph wires at the speed of a pen, promising to revolutionize newspaper journalism.
- Sheriff Cochrane’s War on the Gambler: A Raid That Left Wheels of Fortune in Police Hands
In a sweeping crackdown on vice, Sheriff Cochrane and his deputies arrested thirteen gamblers and seized an arsenal of gambling devices, while a decomposed body was pulled from the harbor.
- The Man Who Stopped the Sparks: Seattle’s Invisible Safety Net
When a fallen trolley wire killed two horses on Front Street, local engineer W.D. Gordon built a mechanical brain to save lives—and it worked every time.
- Seattle Calls a Patent Bluff and Wins
A federal judge rules that John Klein's insulation-pin patent was no invention at all—saving Seattle a payout that Portland and San Francisco had already made.
- The Fortune-Telling Machines Banned
A Seattle judge rules that nickel-in-the-slot 'fortune-telling' devices are illegal gambling machines.
- The Seidlitz-Powder Scheme to Raise a Sunken Ship
Confident investors bought a wreck off Grays Harbor and promised to lift it with secret chemicals, carbonic gas, and a patent they had not quite finished.
- The Great Tacoma Cylinder Heist
A local businessman is drugged and swindled out of a small fortune in company stock while bar-hopping in Tacoma.
- Seven Votes Decide the Sheriff: Judge Langley Tosses Out Fraud Charges and Seats Van de Vanter
After a six-week ballot-by-ballot recount, a Seattle judge ruled that clumsy election officers could not disfranchise King County voters—and confirmed the Republican sheriff by a seven-vote margin.
- The Mayor Moves to Shut the Dives and Gambling Rooms
A sweeping message from the mayor demands that the council revoke the licenses of saloons and music halls where girls sell liquor and gamblers run their games—passed in full by the aldermen even as auditors report a $27,000 hole in the street-improvement funds.
- The River That Would Light Seattle: Snoqualmie Falls Power Company Incorporated
In January 1893, a $2 million company filed articles to harness Snoqualmie Falls and wire electricity to Seattle—an early bet that turned a waterfall into urban power.
- Gambling Near the Throne
City hall's political elites are quietly sanctioning a new gambling house for the well-connected.
- The Constitutional Convention's Partisan Gridlock
Delegates in Olympia debate the structure of the state's future judiciary, clashing over judicial term limits, court size, and political representation.
- The Political Bazaar of 1891: How the Calkins Faction Tried to Buy the Senate
In a frantic scramble to seize power, legislative 'strikers' in Olympia flooded the capital with promises of patronage and political favors, mirroring the high-stakes, behind-the-scenes maneuvering that still defines state politics.
- Fatal Booby Trap in Whatcom
Two men are being hunted after a 'trap gun' rigged to a door killed an unsuspecting visitor.
- The Man Who Robbed Seattle's Fire Relief Fund Walked Out of Prison on Friday
Five years after the great fire of 1889 turned Seattle to ash, the secretary trusted to hand out relief money — an inspector who forged checks to invented men — finished his sentence and went free, his full take never known.
- Seattle Slams the 'Ladies' Entrance' on Saloons
After a 2,500-name petition, the city council orders saloons to keep one street entrance and bars the screened side doors and signs that drew women in.
- The Gyroscope Miracle from Tracyton
A local invention aims to revolutionize seafaring by creating an artificial horizon, allowing ships to navigate through dense fog.
- The Jailbreak Tools Hidden in the Steel
A search of the county jail reveals two hack saws and a DIY heating lamp hidden in the structural pipework, intended for a prisoner's escape.
- Toledo's Bicycle Railroad: A Small Town Bets on a Two-Wheeled Future
Toledo incorporates a railroad company with $80,000 capital and considers a patented bicycle-powered engine to link the town to the Northern Pacific.
- The Self-Taught Mechanic and the Frictionless Dream
A Seattle man is betting his future on a patented axle design, hoping to trade sawmill work for the life of an inventor.
- The Great Columbia Salmon Run Was Dying — and Oregon and Washington Couldn't Agree Who Should Save It
In 1894 a Portland memorial to Congress warned that the Chinook were vanishing: a $31.5 million trade, thousands of jobs, and a two-state turf war over who got to regulate the river.
- The Tax Reformer of Tacoma
A scathing 1888 editorial argues that tax exemptions for the wealthy create a 'system of injustice' that the state must dismantle for the sake of the common good.
- The Surveyor’s Stalling Tactic
King County officials struggle to remove a surveyor accused of administrative misconduct as he leverages legal loopholes to keep his job.
- The Morning the Graphophone Spoke
A group of Seattle scientists and journalists gathered in 1888 to witness the wonders of Thomas Edison's new 'graphophone' recording device, marveling at its ability to capture and reproduce human speech.