IMPROVEMENTS IN VERMIN TRAPS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederic Edward Eden Hooper, at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd May 1877.
FREDERIC EDWARD EDEN HOOPER, of No. 14, Victoria Road, Eltham, in the
County of Kent. IMPROVEMENTS IN VERMIN TRAPS."
“
My Invention relates to vermin traps of the kind wherein two jaws hold apart by
a catch or detent are caused by a spring to collapse when the detent is released by
the pressure of an animal on a bait plate or treadle, and the object of my Invention
is to simplify the construction of such traps, and to combine therewith means of
immediately killing or of retaining captive without serious injury, the animal caught
in the trap. For this purpose, instead of mounting the bait plate in the usual
manner on an arm projecting transversely from the frame of the trap, I mount it
on the middle bar that forms the base of the trap, so that its movement is in
the longitudinal plane, and the width occupied by the trap when it is collapsed
is thus reduced. Moreover by this arrangement I am enabled to simplify the
action and cheapen the construction of the detent apparatus by which the bait
plate holds the spring down until a light pressure applied to the plate discharges
the same.
In constructing a trap in this manner, I sometimes use two springs, one at each
side, instead of the one commonly used, and arrange them to act on two folding flaps,
which, when the trap is set, lie level with its base, but when the springs are
discharged, are caused to rise up and fold over towards one another, thereby crushing
between them the animal that is passing. In this case, for discharging the
springs, I employ a treadle plate connected with suitable detent apparatus,
so that the animal in passing over the treadle causes the discharge to be effected.
This arrangement of trap is peculiarly suited for being placed in the run of an
animal, as when the trap is set it presents no visible obstacle to the advance of
the animal.
For combining the trap with means of suddenly killing or retaining the animal,
I proceed in the following manner :-In rear of the trap I provide a box cage
or open framing, having in its front an opening through which the trap can be
drawn by a weight or spring. When the trap is set, it is held in position by a stop
so arranged that as soon as the jaws collapse it is freed from the stop, and the trap
with the captured animal is thereupon suddenly drawn backwards by the weight or
spring into the box cage or within the framing.

page_text: When it is desired to kill the animal, so as to avoid the prolonged pain to which
it would be exposed by mere capture in the trap, I arrange in the hinder part of the
apparatus a weight or spring held by a detent, so that when the trap and animal
are drawn back, this weight or spring is released, and the animal receives therefrom
a blow that kills it, or is crushed. Or otherwise, instead of a cage or box, a pail
containing water may be employed, so arranged that the trap and animal are drawn
into it, and the animal being thus at once submerged in the water is drowned. In
like manner the retraction of the trap may be caused to discharge a cartridge
producing suffocating gas or vapour within the box so as to asphyxiate the animal,
and in this case it is preferable to employ instead of a box an air-tight bag which
can lie in a collapsed condition until the trap is discharged.
When it is desired to catch the animal alive, I face the jaws of the trap with soft
material, so as not to wound the animal when they collapse, and I provide the cage
behind the trap with a door acted on by a weight or spring, so as to close when
the trap and animal have been drawn into the cage, and to retain the animal
therein. The backward movement of the trap for this purpose may be made to
discharge a weight or spring, so as to open the jaws of the trap and release the
animal from them when it has been drawn with them into the cage.