100 years ago in Eastern Washington: A laundry worker barely survived using his workplace’s ‘washing bowl’ for a bath

Frank Johnson, 35, an employee of the Ephrata Steam Laundry, made an exceptionally poor bath-time decision.

He decided to take a bath in the laundry’s large “washing bowl” after all of the other employees left for the day.

He filled the bowl with lukewarm water, disrobed and climbed in. Then he made another poor decision.

He opened a steam valve slightly to warm up the water.

As soon as he climbed in, his weight caused the revolving mechanism to engage, “which revolved the bowl at frightful speed.” Also, the steam valve was now set too high.

Before he knew it, he was twirling around at dizzying speed in nearly-scalding water up to his neck. A metal cover came down automatically over the bowl, and Johnson could not get out of his giant steaming tea cup.

He shouted for help. Fortunately, two other employees were still outside and heard his screams. They had to break down a locked door and go through a window to rescue him.

They rushed him to an Ephrata doctor who declared that Johnson was “pretty well steamed and scalded,” but would probably recover.

Johnson was barely able to talk about the ordeal, but when asked if he would take another such bath, he “shakes his head negatively.”

From the Prohibition beat: The “proof,” or alcohol content, of the Spokane River shot up suddenly.

That’s because the Spokane County sheriff dumped 500 pints of confiscated liquor, mostly moonshine, into a sewer that emptied directly into the river.