Gun-powered mousetrap

A drawing showing a mouse leaving its burrow and stepping onto Williams's gun-loaded invention.
Drawing from US Patent 269766, "Animal trap"

On August 21, 1882, James Alexander Williams from Fredonia, San Saba County, Texas filed United States patent No.269,766. for a mousetrap incorporating a handgun, "by which animals which burrow in the ground can be destroyed".[1][2]

The patent application suggests that the device might also be used to kill or injure "any person or thing" that makes opens the door or window that it is attached to.[1]

The patent application was approved on December 26, 1882[1] and James Alexander Williams said "The object of my invention is to provide a means by which animals who burrow in the ground can be destroyed, and which the trap will give an alarm each time that it goes off, so that it can be reset."[2]

Design

US Patent 269766, awarded December 26, 1882, to James Alexander Williams of Fredonia, Mason County, Texas, describes a frame with a pistol or revolver secured to it, and a spring, levers and rod which would activate the gun's trigger when an animal stepped on a treadle in front of the muzzle, killing the animal.[1]

Williams said that the invention could also be used to "kill any person or thing opening [a] door or window to which it is attached".[1] He compared it to other similar inventions which were used as burglar alarms. He stated in his patent application that another feature of the design was that the gunshot would act as an alarm: when the trap's gun was fired the gunshot noise would alert the user that the trap had been triggered.[1]

Reception

The United States Patent Office has issued more than 4,400 mousetrap patents.[3] The gun-powered mouse trap proved inferior to spring-powered mousetraps descending from William C. Hooker's 1894 patent. However, the 1882 patent has continued to draw interest–including efforts to reconstruct a version of it–due to its unconventional design.[4] In 2015, Vox listed Williams' device as Number 5 on its list of "7 horrifying attempts at building a better mousetrap",[5] and in 2012 Business Insider called it "the best mousetrap ever".[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "US Patent 269766, Animal-trap". patents.google. Archived from the original on October 22, 2022. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  2. ^ a b "US269766.pdf" (PDF). Google Patents. August 21, 1882. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 13, 2024. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
  3. ^ Bellis, Mary. "History of the Mousetrap". ThoughtCo. Archived from the original on October 22, 2022. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  4. ^ Evon, Dan (December 22, 2020). "Is This 1882 Patent for a Mousetrap Featuring a Loaded Gun Real?". Snopes. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  5. ^ Edwards, Phil (July 17, 2015). "7 horrifying attempts at building a better mousetrap". Vox. Archived from the original on October 22, 2022. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  6. ^ "The Best Mousetrap Ever". Business Insider. June 8, 2012. Archived from the original on October 22, 2022. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
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