Industrial Hazards in 1876 Seattle
A furniture factory worker suffers the loss of his fingers in a dangerous machinery mishap, highlighting the grim reality of manual labor in early Seattle.
Mr. L. B. Frank, a workman employed in the furniture factory of Messrs. Hall & Paulson, met with a very painful accident about 1 o’clock this afternoon. While working on a shaping machine, the board he was dressing slipped, bringing his right hand in contact with the revolving knives and nearly severing the thumb and first two fingers. He was taken to the office of Dr. Weed to have the wound dressed. The two fingers and the first joint of the thumb were so lacerated that they had to be amputated. The other fingers are badly cut up and the bones broken, but they can be saved.
“While working on a shaping machine the board he was dressing slipped, bringing his right hand in contact with the revolving knives.”
This 1876 incident echoes the persistent struggle for workplace safety and workers' compensation that characterized Seattle's industrial growth. Today, while machinery is safer, the 'gig' economy and warehousing sectors face their own versions of the 'painful accident,' raising similar questions about who bears the cost of the physical toll of production.
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