Gun-powered mousetrap

1882 mousetrap design

In 1882 on August 21, a man by the name of James Alexander Williams from San Saba County, Texas was filed a United States patent No.269,766. for a mousetrap incorporating a handgun, "by which animals who burrow in the ground can be deleted from existence".

The patent application suggests that the device might also be used to kill or injure "any person or thing" that makes the fatal decision to open the door or window that it is placed by.

The patent application was approved on December 26 of 1882 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."

Design

US Patent 269766, awarded December 26, 1882, to James A. 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 notify the user that the trap had been triggered.^[1]

Reception

The United States Patent Office has issued more than 4,400 mousetrap patents.^[2] 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.^[3] In 2015 Vox listed Williams' device as Number 5 on its list of "7 horrifying attempts at building a better mousetrap",^[4] and in 2012 Business Insider called it "the best mousetrap ever".^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "US Patent 269766, Animal-trap". patents.google. Archived from the original on 2022-10-22. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
^ Bellis, Mary. "History of the Mousetrap". ThoughtCo. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ Evon, Dan (22 December 2020). "Is This 1882 Patent for a Mousetrap Featuring a Loaded Gun Real?". Snopes. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
^ Edwards, Phil (17 July 2015). "7 horrifying attempts at building a better mousetrap". Vox. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ "The Best Mousetrap Ever". Business Insider. 8 June 2012. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.