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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1890 | 3 |
| 1891 | 4 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 6 |
| 1895 | 5 |
| 1899 | 2 |
| 1903 | 1 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1908 | 2 |
| 1909 | 4 |
| 1916 | 1 |
35 stories matching incandesc
- Seattle Tries to Halve Its Street-Light Bill
A council debate over arc versus incandescent lamps exposed ward rivalries and a fight over how much control the city should keep over a private lighting contract.
- Kennewick Bargained for Brighter Streets—and a Ten-Year Utility Deal
In December 1916, Pacific Power Light proposed replacing Kennewick’s carbon arc lamps with hydrogen lamps, but council members wanted guarantees that new technology and future rate cuts would reach the city.
- Tacoma’s Electric Light War
A private power company accuses the city of selling light below cost to drive it out of business—and of a local editor gagging the story because he runs his own hotel plant.
- Newport Turns On the Lights
The Northern Idaho Montana Power Co. is wiring 2,500-candlepower arc lights and tungsten incandescents at intersections across Newport—a $4,500 bet on the town's future.
- Snohomish, 1898: A Ferry Claim Becomes a Booster's Dream City
A promotional tour of the inland Puget Sound town traces its founding by I.C. Ferguson, its lumber and fishing wages, and the railroad that turned a river landing into a self-described city of homes.
- The Hidden Metal Powering the Electric Age
A rare, inaccessible metal from the Ural Mountains has become as valuable as gold, and it is the only thing keeping the world's incandescent light bulbs from shattering.
- Seattle’s Fourth of July: A City Adorned in Light and Iron
As the nation celebrates its birthday, Seattle’s business leaders have transformed downtown into a spectacle of gas jets, electric lamps, and iron arches, proving that the young city is ready for its moment on the national stage.
- 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 Night a Streetcar Powerhouse Fire Left Half of Seattle Dark
A pre-dawn blaze at Fifth and Pine gutted the Consolidated Street Railway plant, destroyed nearly all its cars and dynamos, crippled three lines, and blacked out everything north of Pike Street.
- The Warden Fights Back: Prison Labor, Jute Sacks and a Seattle Newspaper Scandal
Accused of selling prison-made sacks to middlemen and brutalizing convicts, Walla Walla’s warden answers his critics with a detailed defense—and a challenge to inspect the prison.
- The Price of Power: Citizens Take on the Electric Monopoly
Dr. J. F. Cropp leads a crusade against the Northwestern Gas and Electric company, armed with petitions and a list of rates from 27 other cities.
- Buy Our Waterworks, or We'll Sell You to a Syndicate
Tacoma's Light and Water Company files its inventory for a $1.75 million city buyout — and a critic notes that the company has always known how to win a Tacoma election.
- The $275,000 Plan to Dredge Olympia Into a Deep-Water Port
In 1892, a federal engineer proposed cutting a 12-foot channel through two miles of tide flats so ocean steamers could reach Fourth Street. The price tag was $275,000—and a bet on Olympia’s future.
- The Seattle Grocer Who Died Chasing Central American Trade
J. E. Chilberg clawed back from a fire, a failed corporation and a panic to build a Puget Sound steamship trade with Guatemala — then went down with the foundering Colima on the voyage that was supposed to secure it.
- A Powerhouse Fire Couldn't Keep Seattle's Streetcars Down for Long
Flames destroyed the Consolidated Street Railway's power house and dozens of cars before dawn, but borrowed dynamos and quick repairs had the lines running again by morning.
- A Packed Council Chamber, a Railroad Franchise, and a Fight Over Public Streets
Newport's city council meeting drew a standing-room crowd as aldermen tangled over an Idaho Washington Northern street-vacation request, a conflict-of-interest accusation, saloon licenses, and an electric-light contract.
- Selling the 'Magic City': Fairhaven’s 1890 Development Boom
Boosterism was at its peak in Fairhaven as the Fairhaven Land Company touted steel furnaces, electric lights, and an inexhaustible connection to Skagit coal.
- God, Politics, and 'The World for Christ' in 1899 Seattle
At the turn of the century, the Christian Endeavor movement filled the Armory to demand political purity and global missions, setting the stage for moral fervor in local governance.
- Fremont's Dark Streets
The Seattle City Council faces a standoff with the electric company over street lighting for the neighborhood.
- The Peril of the Open Sewer
A pedestrian’s fall into an unlit excavation leads to a three-way courtroom battle between the injured man, the city, and a railway company.
- A Hanging in the Armory: The Unpopular Corporal and the Men Who Stuffed His Uniform
Company E turned a grudge into theatre — an effigy rigged with an electric-light wire, a pair of odd-coloured glasses and a chalked gravestone — and a military court may follow.
- Aberdeen’s New Retail Palace Opens in a Blaze of Light
Over 1,500 residents crowded into the new Toklas & Kaufman brick block, marking a milestone in the city's Gilded Age expansion.
- The Lights Turn On in Fairhaven
After months of construction, the Fairhaven Electric Light Company successfully powers the city's streets and businesses for the first time.
- The Electric Gate: An Olympia Father Declares War on Front-Gate Courting
A gadget-minded Eastside householder wires his front gate to deliver a jolt to lally-gagging sweethearts — and proves it first on an unwitting dog and a cabbage-loving cow.
- The National Theater Manager Skipped Town With the Glassware
H. H. Kline vanished from Olympia's National Theater, leaving unpaid salaries, a bar tab, and empty beer bottles—while police took charge of the building.