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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1872 | 2 |
| 1876 | 8 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 6 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 4 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1886 | 3 |
| 1887 | 2 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
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| 1892 | 12 |
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| 1903 | 5 |
| 1904 | 5 |
| 1908 | 2 |
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| 1910 | 1 |
| 1914 | 1 |
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| 1923 | 2 |
95 stories matching invent
- The Electric Robe Wars: A Spokane Doctor’s Patent Battle in Walla Walla
Two physicians engage in a public spat over who invented the 'electric bath robe,' turning a local newspaper's letters page into a courtroom for medical innovation.
- The 'Combined Eye-Glass and Deadshot Expectorator'
A traveling salesman tries to peddle an absurd invention to the local elite of the Pacific Club to 'fix' a social problem nobody knew they had.
- 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 Day the Talking Machine Arrived in Seattle
In 1878, Seattle citizens gathered at Yesler’s Hall for a demonstration of Thomas Edison's 'wonderful invention' that could capture and replay human speech.
- The Adjustable Ferry That Never Needed a Dock
A bold new invention proposed for the Tacoma waterfront promised to eliminate expensive landings by using adjustable decks to handle any tide.
- The Electric Robe Wars: A Spokane Doctor’s Threat and a Walla Walla Professor’s Defense
In the early days of electrical therapy, two men clashed over patents and health claims in the pages of the Evening Statesman.
- Old Yank, the Sequim Inventor Who Rigged His Counter to Sting Thieves
A correspondent visits Professor Watkins of Sequim Prairie, an eccentric mechanic whose inventions ranged from a needle-spring burglar trap to a wooden mowing machine and a windmill made to grind the prairie's wheat.
- The Colfax Sack Elevator
A local inventor creates a machine designed to eliminate the back-breaking labor of stacking grain in regional warehouses.
- 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.
- 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 Medal-Winning Blacksmith of Dayton
How a small-town Washington inventor gained international acclaim from the Parisian Academy of Inventors for a clever sidehill plow design.
- Another Attempt to Raise the Sunken Andelana
The Neptune Salvage Company is employing a new invention—a 'diving cage'—in a high-stakes effort to recover a ship that sank near the Puyallup River in 1899.
- The Perpetual Motion Inventor's Wild Night
Dr. Hannibal Mills, a local crank obsessed with his 'perpetual motion' machine, shoots a saloon keeper after a drunken argument.
- The Unsung Genius of the Barrel
A deep dive into the history of an everyday object that the 1880s public took for granted, tracing its utility from Egyptian antiquity to modern Seattle.
- 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 Great Match Stick Swindle
A Superior Court judge exposes a massive stock-selling scheme that bilked nearly 1,000 investors out of $95,000.
- 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 Dream of the Flameless Mill
A bold industrial scheme in Olympia to run a lumber mill via the power of the tides—and the quiet, resourceful spirit behind the invention.
- The Seattle Invention That Promised to Banish the 'Tremor' of Steamboats
A local citizen trials a double-inclined plane water wheel on Lake Union, aiming to solve the vibration and loss of power plaguing the steam-powered era.
- 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.
- The Industrial Engine of Snohomish
How a trio of Maine brothers revolutionized logging in the Pacific Northwest with a singular, patented invention.
- They Planned to Pull Iron Out of Columbia River Sand
A Hanford inventor and the Great Western Iron Company claimed the Columbia Valley's sand held high-grade magnetite worth $90 a ton.
- The Miracle of the 'Family Must Have' Machine
In 1876, a Puget Sound agent marketed the sewing machine not just as a tool, but as a revolutionary domestic wonder required for every household.
- The Industrial Revolution of the Puget Sound Frontier
Two local inventors debut a massive, horse-powered stump-pulling machine, promising to clear vast swaths of Washington timberland for a fraction of the cost.
- The Emergency Brake of 1892
A clever new mechanism for Seattle's Woodland Park streetcar line promised to stop a runaway trolley car within its own length.