IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of Aug. 25 to Aug. 31 in east Idaho history.

1900-1925

POCATELLO — A Pocatello man invented a locomotive safety device that was being called “the most important safety appliances for locomotive boilers ever conceived,” The Bingham County News reported on Aug. 29, 1912, from an article originally published in The Pocatello Tribune.

The invention was created by “a recognized mechanical genius” named Richard J. Hogan, who was one of the owners of a Pocatello grocery store at the time and who had worked in the railroad machine shops.

His invention was allegedly designed to make locomotive boiler explosions impossible.

“Whenever the water in a boiler becomes lower than the danger point, an automatic attac

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