Electricity

• The first electric light was installed at the Alice Mine in Butte in 1880. (Montana Standard, May 5, 2004, C1)

• On August 28, 1882 the first electric lights ever seen in Montana were switched on in downtown Helena. It was reported that "Miss Stella Knight, the little daughter of Mayor Knight, president of the company (and mayor of Helena), had the honor of setting free, by the delicate touch of her little hand up the lever of dynamo machine, the mighty electric current which in a moment flashed along the wire and blazed forth in brilliant light from every lamp..." There was enough current for forty lamps in all, and these lit the heart of the business district, that stretch of Last Chance Gulch which is now the south half of the downtown mall. (McCahon, Dennis, Helena Almanac)

Typewriter

• The first typerwriter was brought into Montana in 1885 by Judge W. I. Lippincott of Butte. It was a Remington typewriter brought in by bull train at a cost of $235 and was for Joe Rosenthal. It was soon sold to Jude DeWitt and later to J. Ross Clark. (W. I. Lippincott, Vertical Files)

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