A mousetrap is a sort of animal trap intended specifically to catch and, in most cases, kill mice. Mousetraps are often placed in an interior location where a rat infestation is anticipated. Larger traps are used to catch larger creatures like rats, squirrels, and other small rodents, as well as other animals.

A set of spring-loaded, cast-iron jaws known as “Royal No. 1” is acknowledged as the first patented lethal mousetrap. James M. Keep of New York patented it on November 4, 1879, with US patent 221,320. Although it is obvious from the patent description that this is not the first mousetrap of its kind, the invention is for this streamlined, easy-to-manufacture design. It’s an industrial-era version of the deadfall trap, except instead of gravity, it relies on the force of a wound spring.

A coiled spring operates the jaws, and the triggering mechanism is located between the jaws, where the bait is held. The journey snaps the rodent’s jaws shut, killing it.

Plastic is being used to make lightweight traps in this design. These traps don’t have as strong a snap as other traps. They are safer for the person setting them than other fatal traps and maybe set with a single finger or even a foot by pressing on a tab.

William C. Hooker of Abingdon, Illinois, was the first to patent the spring-loaded mousetrap in 1894, receiving US patent 528671 for his invention. In 1898, a British inventor named James Henry Atkinson patented the “Little Nipper,” which included versions with a weight-activated treadle as the travel.

In 1899, Atkinson patented a modification of his earlier invention that changed it from a treadle-triggered trap to one that was activated by pulling on the bait. Because of the similarities between the latter design and Hooker’s of 1894, it’s possible that Atkinson was given precedence.

It’s a straightforward gadget with a spring-loaded bar and a trip to activate it. Cheese can be used as bait, but other foods like oats, chocolate, bread, meat, butter, and peanut butter can also be utilized. When anything, usually a mouse, hits the trip, the spring-loaded bar swings down quickly and violently. The design is such that the force of the bar will break the mouse’s neck or spinal cord or crush its ribcage or skull. By holding the trap above a bin and pulling the bar, the dead mouse may be discharged into it. Rats, which are considerably larger than mice, are killed using a much larger version of the same sort of trap. An extended plastic trip is included in certain spring mousetraps. The bigger trip differs from, the smaller conventional kind in two ways: it has more leverage, requiring less power from the mouse to trip it, and it has a greater surface area, increasing the likelihood that the rodent will set off the trap. The precise latching mechanism that holds the trip in place varies, and some must be positioned just on edge to be sensitive enough to capture the mouse.

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