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198 stories matching patente
- 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 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.
- City Settled Charley Allen's Flume Patent Claim
Mayor Hunt faces accusations of conflict of interest and patent infringement after his own foundry manufactured parts for a municipal project.
- 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.
- Monte Cristo’s Residents vs. the Placer Claim
A federal commissioner orders a new hearing in the fight over whether a mining claim swallowed a Snohomish County townsite.
- 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.
- Defending the Aberdeen Steam Skidder
A local inventor faces patent-infringement threats from industry giants in the competitive world of logging machinery.
- A Blind Herb Doctor and the Death of a 14-Year-Old
An Olympia coroner’s jury found that Clara M. Linton died from the botanical treatments of Dr. William T. Campbell, a blind patent-medicine practitioner who promised her father a cure.
- The Fight for Puyallup: A Last-Minute Land Grab
Before leaving office, Interior Secretary Teller attempted to block land titles for the Puyallup people, favoring the expansion of a local corporation.
- Blandford Takes the Blame in City Flume Patent Suit
The Statesman accuses the city administration of forcing a contractor to take the fall for a costly legal infringement on a flume project.
- The Patent Scam That Ended With a Frenchman's Last $3
A Seattle detective's account of a fake invention scheme shows how confidence men worked—and how the law let the swindlers slip away.
- The Ground-Squirrel Plague and the Bomb That Sent Them to 'Squirrel Heaven'
Whitman County farmers hoped a mysterious disease would wipe out the pests. Then came strychnine, arsenic and patented giant-powder bombs.
- The State Tried to Plat Their Islands
Brawley and Kinnear went to court to stop a state tide-land plat from turning 140 acres of Elliott Bay into lots and streets.
- Puyallup Reservation Lands Distributed
After a long period of waiting, Puyallup families have finally received land patents as the reservation is divided into 167 tracts.
- Puyallup People Wait on Delayed Land Patents
A century-old battle for property rights reveals how corporate interests and federal delays threatened to dispossess the Puyallup people of their ancestral home.
- The Railroad Reaches for Marshall Lake's Mines
Northern Pacific applies for a land patent covering worked mining claims near Marshall Lake, and claim owners prepare to fight.
- The Great Land Grant Tax Dodging Scheme
Railroad companies are holding onto millions of acres of public land without filing for patents to avoid taxes, placing the burden of government costs on local settlers.
- 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.
- The Coming of 'War Bread'
Federal authorities mandate a shift in milling standards as Washington residents are warned to prepare for lower-grade flour and higher prices.
- The Unlikely Hero of the Fire Escape
When a local doctor patented a new fire escape in 1878, he had to prove it could survive the ultimate test: a 'timid' gentleman from the New England Hotel climbing down from a third-story window.
- The Fight Over Unpaid Rail Taxes
A new Congressional bill aims to force Pacific railroads to pay taxes on their vast land grants, closing a loophole that left farmers shouldering the civic burden.
- The Settlement of the Indemnity Strip
After years of uncertainty, the federal government confirms Northern Pacific railroad land grants, ending a volatile era for local settlers.
- 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 Yakima Inventor Who Struck It Rich
A local inventor's patent for a hay baler nets him a windfall of $16,000 after Portland investors realize the machine's true potential.
- The Legal Battle Over Land Claims
Judge Hanford rules on a dispute between the Stimson Land Company and individual homesteaders, highlighting the complexities of federal land patent law.
Also about this, in other words
- The Peril of the 'Patent Knocker'
A rancher's squirrel-extermination device explodes, nearly ending his life.
- The Wooden Pipe Patent War
A Denver inventor takes a Snohomish County mining company to federal court over a dispute involving hooped wooden pipes.
- The Patent Steam Dryer at Yesler’s Wharf
A new industrial appliance for families arrives in late 19th-century Seattle, promising to modernize the household chore of food preservation.
- The Patent Medicine Hustle on Front Street
A Seattle reporter investigates the miraculous 'medical inhalations' of an advertising physician, uncovering a trail of dubious health claims and desperate patients.
- The Shadowy Business of Patent Medicines
A cynical drug clerk reveals the grisly truth behind 'medical' concoctions and the dangerous incompetence of the pharmacy trade in 1880s Seattle.
- Industrial Explosion at Port Gamble Mill
A boiler rupture at the Kitsap County lumber mill leaves an engineer severely scalded, highlighting the physical dangers of the region's dominant timber industry.
- The Tragedy of a Young Belgian Immigrant
After four years building a life in Kennewick, a local slaughterhouse foreman dies of typhoid, leaving behind a young family.
- A High-Stakes Divorce and Property Battle
Catherine Philbrick files for divorce and moves to void property conveyances in the heart of Port Townsend.