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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1872 | 4 |
| 1876 | 4 |
| 1877 | 4 |
| 1878 | 5 |
| 1880 | 4 |
| 1883 | 3 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 1 |
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| 1889 | 4 |
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| 1892 | 7 |
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| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 3 |
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| 1923 | 1 |
98 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.
- Olympia Bought a $1,500 Sewer Map Critics Called Worthless
A letter to the editor accuses the city council of buying a stranger's sewer plan without scrutiny—complete with a harbor reservoir already condemned in San Diego.
- The Mayor Who Bought His Seat with Lottery Money
In Seattle’s first hotly contested municipal election of 1876, the newspaper publisher who ran for mayor lost to Dr. Weed—not because he lacked support from mechanics and laborers, but because his opponent mobilized the city’s notorious lottery gamblers.
- 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 Patent War Over the Electric Bath Robe
A public spat between a Spokane physician and an local 'professor' reveals the cutthroat market for pseudo-scientific wellness devices.
- 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.
- A Palace on Rails Arrives in Newport
Idaho Washington Northern's new Pullman coaches—steam-heated, electric-lit and brass-trimmed—began service out of Newport, promising a new through line to Spokane.
- Kennewick Cracks Down on Gambling Devices
Following the state-wide ban on alcohol, the local prosecutor turned his sights on punch boards and slot machines in corner stores.
- The Lawyer Who Sold Out the Settlers
A local editorial exposes future President James Garfield’s role as a corporate attorney for the Northern Pacific Railroad, accusing him of betraying Washington Territory homesteaders to protect railroad land holdings.
- City Faces Lawsuit After Fatal Electrocution
Lawyers prepare to sue the city over the deaths of two men who were killed while turning on electric lights.
- The Vigilante Committee: Tacoma's Desperate War on Crime
In March 1902, Tacoma’s elite formed a secret society sworn to kill without mercy after police failed to stop a wave of robberies and murders.
- The Mudflat Standoff: A Political Tug-of-War for Seattle’s Waterfront
In 1872, Seattle’s local press accused the Territorial Delegate of suppressing a crucial memorial to cede Duwamish mudflats to the city for his own electoral gain.
- The Newspaper Editor and the Political Bruiser
A brutal street assault in Olympia reveals the volatile intersection of frontier politics and an independent press.
- The Bankrupt Giant and the Tacoma Land Ring
A skeptical editor exposes the Northern Pacific Railroad's questionable finances and a suspicious telegraph campaign used to inflate land values in Tacoma.
- Bodies of Colman and Patten Recovered from Lake Washington
After weeks of searching, a homemade underwater viewing device helps recover the bodies of two men murdered on the water.
- 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.
- The Chamber of Commerce Turns Against Northern Pacific
Seattle business leaders unite to block a railroad land grant, accusing the Northern Pacific of a 'device and trick' to seize valuable timber and coal fields in King County.
- Tacoma’s Secret 'Fining' System
Mayor Wright and Chief Malony allegedly operated a shadow tax on gambling and vice, using fake names to funnel illicit profits through the city’s ledgers.
- The Conflict of Interest Scandal at City Hall
Walla Walla voters are presented with evidence that Mayor Gilbert Hunt allegedly funneled city and school district contracts to his own private manufacturing company.
- Knockout Drops at the Standard Saloon
A Tacoma man swears he was drugged, fleeced of $210, and knocked toothless—then asks the city to revoke the saloon's license.
- The First Legal Code of Washington Territory
A sweeping 1854 legislative act codified the rules of the frontier, from the punishment of corrupt jailers to the regulation of 'notorious barrators' and illegal gambling.