AN IMPROVED TRAP FOR DESTROYING FLIES AND OTHER INSECTS."
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Victor Delestre, of Paris, Quai Conti, No. 5,
Medical Doctor, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED TRAP FOR DESTROYING
FLIES AND OTHER INSECTS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Victor Delestre at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st May 1866.
I, JOSEPH VICTOR DELESTRE, of Paris, Quai Conti, No. 5, Medical Doctor,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED TRAF
FOR DESTROYING FLIES AND OTHER INSECTS," to be as follows:-
This trap consists of a vase or vessel open both at the top and bottom,
the lower edge being toothed, vandyked, or scalloped, so that when placed
upon a plate or other surface there may be a series of entrances or outlets to
the vase. To the inside of the vase is attached another vase of conical or
taper form, the narrower end being uppermost; an annular chamber or cup is
thus formed between the two vases, which chamber is supplied with sugared
water or other liquid. A bell-shaped or other cover is then placed upon the
outer vase. If this trap be placed on a plate or other surface on which honey,
preserve, or sugar is spread, flies, wasps, or other insects are attracted thereto,
and enter the vase by the openings at the bottom thereof. When they have
satisfied themselves they fly to the top of the vase, but finding no outlet fall
into the liquid in the annular cup and are destroyed.
A modification of this trap is as follows I construct a vessel resembling

page_text: a decanter or bottle, and turn the bottom inwards all round, so as to form an
annular chamber or cup at the bottom of the vessel, which I supply with liquid.
An opening is left in the centre of the bottom of the vessel. I place this vessel
over a cup supplied with honey or other bait, leaving sufficient space between
this cup and the inner circumference of the annular cup for the flies to enter.
The effect is the same as before. The flies after eating fly up towards the top
of the vessel, which is closed by a.stopper or otherwise, and finding no outlet
fall into the liquid.
I prefer to make the vessels cylindrical, but any other desired form may be
adopted; and the traps may be constructed of glass, porcelain, or other.
suitable material, plain or ornamented, in any desired manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Victor Delestre in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st November 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
VICTOR DELESTRE, of Paris, Quai Conti, No. 5, Medical Doctor, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her. most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Joseph Victor Delestre, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph Victor
Delestre, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Joseph Victor Delestre, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN
IMPROVED TRAP FOR DESTROYING FLIES AND OTHER INSECTS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Victor Delestre, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Victor Delestre, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and 'by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say :-
This trap consists of a vase or vessel open both at the top and bottom, the
lower edge being toothed, vandyked, or scalloped; so that when placed upon a
plate or other surface there may be a series of entrances or inlets to the vase.
To the inside of the vase is attached another vase of conical or taper form, the
narrower end being uppermost; an annular chamber or cup is thus formed
between the two vases, which chamber is supplied with sugared water or.
other liquid. A bell-shaped or other cover is then placed upon the outer
vase. This trap is represented in Figures 1, 2, and 3 of the accompanying
Drawings.
Figure 1 shows the whole trap in vertical section; Figure 2 is a vertical
section, and. Figure 8 a plan of the trap with the cover removed.
is
a is the outer vase open at the top and bottom, as shown, its lower edge."
6 being scalloped, so that when placed upon a surface there are a series of
entrances or inlets e; c is the inner conical vase attached to the outer vase a,
and forming an annular cup or chamber d between them, into which liquid is
placed; is the cover provided with a knob or handle g. If this trap be
placed on a plate or other surface on which honey, preserve, or sugar
spread, flies, wasps, or other insects are attracted thereto, and enter the vase a
by the openings e at the bottom thereof. When they have satisfied themselves
they fly to the top of the vase, but finding no outlet fall into the-liquid in the
annular cup d and are destroyed. When the flies accumulate in the cup d
the cover fis taken off, and the cup emptied.
A modification of this trap is represented in Figure 4. I construct a
vessel a resembling a decanter or bottle, and turn the bottom inwards all
round, as shown at 1, so as to form an annular chamber or cup k at the bottom
of the vessel, which I supply with liquid, and I then close the top of the vessel
by a stopper 9. An opening is left in the centre of the bottom of the vessel a
as shown. I place this vessel over a cup i supplied with honey or other bait,
leaving sufficient space j all round between this cup and the inner circum-
ference of the annular cup k for the flies to enter. The effect is the same as
before. The flies after eating fly up towards the top of the vessel, which is
closed by the stopper g or otherwise, and finding no outlet fall into the liquid.
The vessel a rests on a support or tripod h attached to the cup i. I prefer to
make the vessels cylindrical, but any other desired form may be adopted, and

page_text: the traps may be constructed of glass, porcelain, or other suitable material,
by preference transparent, and either plain or ornamented, in any desired.
manner.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the improved trap
for destroying flies and other insects constructed substantially as herein-before
described and represented in the accompanying Drawings, that is to say, of a.
vessel and cover as shown in Figures 1, 2, and 8, the vessel having at the
bottom a series of entrances for the insects, and at the upper part a capacity.
for liquid to destroy the insects; or of a vessel as shown in Figure 4, closed at
the top by a stopper open at the bottom, and having a capacity for liquid, as
shown, and held by a support over a receptacle for honey or other bait.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Victor Delestre, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Sixteenth day of October, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
CH. ARMENGAUD,
Ingenieur Civil,
Boulev de Strasbourg, 23,
à Paris.
J. V. DELESTRE. (L.B.)