IMPROVEMENTS IN VERMIN AND OTHER TRAPS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Sibley Baker at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th February
1865.
I, ROBERT SIBLEY BAKER, of Hargrave, in the County of Northampton,
Clerk, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN VERMIN AND OTHER TRAPS," to be as follows:-
My. Invention consists of the improvements in vermin and other traps.
herein-after described, whereby the said traps are prevented from lacerating
the flesh or breaking the bones of the animals caught in them, without
diminishing the security with which the animals are held.
My said Invention consists, firstly, of the following improvements in such
vermin and other traps as secure the animal caught by the closing upon a
limb or other part of the animal of moveable jaws or blades, or by the closing
of one moveable jaw or blade against a fixed jaw or blade.
I will describe this part of my Invention in connection with a vermin trap
of the ordinary kind, that is to say, a vermin trap of the kind commonly called
a steel trap. Upon the jaws or those parts of the trap which by closing upon
each other grasp and secure the animal between them I fix pads, cushions, or
coverings of vulcanized caoutchouc, or any other soft elastic material. The
said jaws are ordinarily made either with a serrated or sharp edge, and in
closing lacerate the flesh or break the bones of the animal caught. By
shielding or covering, or facing with a soft material the surfaces which by
closing grasp and secure the animal, no unnecessary pain or injury is inflicted,

page_text: while the hold on the animal is not less firm than in traps of of the ordinary
kind.
I do not limit myself to any particular method of attaching the pads,
cushions, or coverings of vulcanized caoutchouc or other soft elastic material
to the jaws of traps, neither do I limit myself to the use of any particular
material. In practice I have found vulcanized caoutchouc answers well,
and I believe it to be the best material that can be used in carrying this part
of my Invention into effect, yet unvulcanized caoutchouc or cork, or cushions
stuffed with horsehair or other soft elastic material may be used with the
same or nearly the same effect.
My Invention consists, secondly, in the following improvements in the
construction of vermin and other traps. I make the trap circular in plan,
the spring being confined on or within the circle, and I secure the trap by
means of a chain connected to its centre by a swivel link or bolt; by this con-
struction the animal caught pulls at right angles to the jaws of the trap.
The trap by means of the swivel link can turn freely in any direction so as to
follow the struggles of the animal in its efforts to escape, and it thus holds
the animal securely while inflicting on it either by the action of the trap or
by its own struggles to escape a minimum amount of pain and injury. In
the common steel trap the animal in struggling pulls in a 'direction oblique
to the resistance, and almost necessarily breaks the limb by which it is
caught.
The essence of my Invention consists, firstly, in fixing pads, cushions, or
coverings of vulcanized caoutchouc, or other soft elastic material on those
parts of vermin and other traps which on the closing of the trap come in
contact with the animal, so as to prevent the said parts from unnecessarily
paining or injuring the animal caught, the said pads, cushions, or coverings
being applied to the ordinary steel traps or to traps improved in construction,
as before described, or to other traps having à closing jaw or closing jaws.
And, secondly, in constructing traps in the manner herein-before described, so
that the struggles of the animal caught shall inflict on it a minimum amount of
*pain and injury.