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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 1 |
| 1895 | 6 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1903 | 2 |
| 1909 | 2 |
| 1916 | 2 |
30 stories matching magnet
- The Miracle of the Magnetized Spikes
A visiting electrical engineer stuns a packed Plymouth Congregational Church with a massive 5,000-candlepower lamp and a demonstration of magnetic force.
- A Girl Died in a Magnetic Healer’s Home. Her Father Was Kept Outside.
Vina Kelly, 14, died at her brother-in-law’s West Street practice. The coroner ordered an inquest after conflicting death reports and a father’s late-night grief.
- Edison's Noiseless Motor and the Race to Put Olympia on Rails
Two Edison men pitch a single-reduction streetcar motor to Olympia's electric company, promising rails by the Fourth of July—if property holders cooperate on subsidies.
- The Pied Piper of Seattle: The Policeman Who Controlled Animals
Before Seattle became a sprawling metropolis, a local officer reportedly possessed a magnetic, inexplicable influence over stray dogs and wild creatures.
- The Snake Oil Salesman of Seattle
A traveling 'magnetic' doctor promises miraculous cures for everything from asthma to consumption, setting up shop in 1889 Seattle.
- Seattle's $3 Million Steel Dream on Salmon Bay
A new blast furnace and steel works promised thousands of jobs, a freight-car plant, and 23,000 new residents—if the boosters were to be believed.
- The Mesmerist’s Web: How Two Wives Defied Police to Free a Seattle Scandal
Charles Woodruff, the city's most notorious mesmerist and alleged bigamist, remains behind bars not because of lack of evidence, but because his former wives refuse to testify against him.
- Eighty-Five Portland Boosters Take Kennewick by Storm
A trade excursion rolls into town for four hours of speeches, store visits, and open-river boosterism — with the mayor, the railroads, and a 'cocktail' cherry orchard all in on the fun.
- The Forgotten Iron Gorge of the Cascades
A survey of the remote Denny mining claims near Snoqualmie Pass reveals a rugged, dangerous 'wonder land' of hidden mineral wealth.
- The Price of a Day's Pay: Seattle’s 1887 Labor Brokers
A deep dive into the predatory practices of late 19th-century employment agencies that thrived on the desperation of transient laborers.
- Sunday Statistics: The War for the Soul of Seattle's Youth
Rev. Wallace Nutting takes a census of the city’s saloons and churches to prove the moral decay of young men in the West.
- The Woman They Refused to Bury
When Catherine Costillo was pronounced dead of pneumonia, her husband grew convinced she was merely in a deep, spirit-touched trance, sparking a bizarre standoff at a Seattle undertaking parlor.
- Seattle’s Iron Dream: The $3 Million Plant That Promised to Remake Puget Sound
In the wake of a depression, boosters announced a blast-furnace and steel-works complex on Salmon Bay — plus a freight-car factory — predicting thousands of jobs and 25,000 new residents.
- 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 Navy’s Checklist: Why Seattle Was Betting Its Future on Iron and Timber
In January 1902, the city compiled a massive dossier of industrial advantages—from Denny Mine ore to fresh-water wharves—to convince Washington D.C. that Seattle was the only logical site for a new Pacific naval station.
- The Chamber of Commerce Backs the Seattle, Walla Walla and Baker City Railroad
A new report argues that the construction of a cross-state railroad is essential to securing Seattle's industrial future.
- The War on the Free Lunch
A Tacoma councilman moves to abolish the staple of the working-class saloon, calling it a magnet for vagrancy.
- 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 Woman Who Bet $20,000 She Could Walk Around the World
Champion pedestrian Zoe Gayton stops in Seattle before a globe-circling wager—armed with walking shoes, two revolvers, and a cocker spaniel.
- General Booth Brings the Salvation Army’s Hallelujah Show to Seattle
A visiting evangelist fills the Armory, keeps a basement congregation on its knees, and explains why the Army is not a church.
- 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.
- A Pigeon Flew 100 Miles to Report From Mount Rainier
A carrier pigeon from the Starlee-Meeker expedition delivers dispatches, tall trees, trout, and one very sleepy doctor.
- Forging a Gateway Through the Cascades
A new mountain road promises to replace a 350-mile detour with a direct 120-mile route, finally linking Seattle to the agricultural bounty of Eastern Washington.
- The Gold Rush on the Pacific Beaches
A Tacoma syndicate aims to extract gold and platinum from the sands of Beard's Hollow near Ilwaco.
- The Mystery Meteor of Wenas Valley
A three-year-old discovery, once buried in the earth, sparks local wonder and debate in Yakima.
Also about this, in other words
- Everett Unions Rally to Fund McNamara Defense
Facing mounting costs for the McNamara brothers' legal defense, Everett's trade unions plan a benefit ball to challenge the influence of corporate capital.
- A Skating Rink Disaster
A romantic rivalry at the local roller rink ends in a humiliating and public wardrobe malfunction.
- The Weather Bureau's Secret Weapon
An Aberdeen inventor was caught with a bizarre, Gattling-gun-style contraption designed to blast the clouds away and control the rain.
- The McNamara Defense Ball
Everett labor unions crowd the dance floor to raise funds for a controversial national legal defense campaign.
- A Heroic Rescue in Kent
A young boy was saved from being crushed by a heavy engine flywheel when a local woman lifted the massive weight off his chest.
- The Machine Behind the Badge
Striking Everett machinists allege that local industry and the police have merged, with company men serving as 'special police' to suppress picket lines.
- The Perils of Amateur Wiring
A Coulee City man survives a terrifying fall from an electric light pole.
- The Fight for the Stevens County Magnesite Market
Local miners face renewed economic uncertainty as Austrian firms petition for a sharp reduction in import tariffs, threatening the fragile recovery of the regional mineral industry.