AN IMPROVED RABBIT AND VERMIN TRAP
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Douglas, of Wire Bridge, in the County of
Peebles, North Britain, Game Keeper, for an Invention of "AN IMPROVED
RABBIT AND VERMIN TRAP."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Douglas at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 26th March 1881.
THOMAS DOUGLAS, of Wire Bridge, in the County of Peebles, North Britain,
Game Keeper. "AN IMPROVED RABBIT AND VERMIN TRAP."
This Invention relates to an improved construction of spring trap for catching
rabbits and other animals or vermin, and it is designed to avoid the risk to dogs
and game attendant on the use of the ordinary traps, which also cause unnecessary
pain to the animals trapped.
In, the improved trap the usual jointed gripping jaws, which snap on to the
animal's legs or feet when it steps on to the catch plate, are dispensed with, and
there is substituted for these gripping jaws a small arched metal bow or hoop
attached to the lower bar or base of the trap, and a transverse bar or rod on the
inner end of the top bar or usual bow spring, or it might be other form of spring,
released by the pressure of the rabbit or other animal on the tread plate. In the
usual bow spring trap this bar would be secured on the inner free end of the top
part of the bow spring.
When the trap is set, this spring bar is held down by the usual form of hinged
catch and tread or catch plate, and when this plate is trod upon by the animal the
top cross bar springs up into in close proximity to the adjacent side of the fixed
bow or hoop.
The trap is set in front of the rabbit's hole with the hoop in line and across the
hole, so that when the animal comes out its puts its head through the hoop before
or just when it treads on the catch plate in front, and the cross bar being suddenly
freed it catches the rabbit's neck between it and the hoop above, immediately
killing the animal. If the rabbit should be entering the hole its head and fore legs
are through the loop before it treads on the catch plate, and the animal is firmly

page_text: caught by the middle, but the rabbit is not mangled or torn as in the present or
ordinary trap in use. The releasing catch plate is in front of the loop or bow and
so placed in relation to it that the animal to be caught must have its head or body
within the loop when the spring is freed by its own tread. There is a fixed plate
in front of the tread plate, on which the rabbit on issuing from the hole can press
without setting off the trap, and this allows the rabbit to advance until its head is
well under the hoop before its feet rest on the movable tread plate which spring
the trap. If a dog or a bird should alight or step on the tread plate or catch, it
springs the trap, but it is not caught or injured unless (as would be unlikely) it had
its head or body partly within the hoop. The trap thus only kills or catches
rabbits or other animals which pass through it without mangling them, and need
not therefore be removed to avoid injuring hounds when a hunt takes place over
the ground where such traps are set, as is necessary when the old form of traps are
used with great trouble and inconvenience to, the keepers, who must remove them
before the hunt and afterwards reset them.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Thomas Douglas in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
20th September 1881.
THOMAS DOUGLAS, of Wire-bridge, in the County of Peebles, North Britain,
Game-keeper. " AN IMPROVED RABBIT AND VERMIN TRAP."
My said Invention relates to an improved construction of spring trap for catching
rabbits and other animals or vermin, and it is designed to avoid the risk to dogs
and game attendant on the use of the ordinary traps, which also cause unnecessary
pain to the animals trapped.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, I have hereunto appended for that purpose a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be hereinafter referred to, and representing a modification
of my rabbit or vermin trap. The same letters are used in these Drawings
to mark like parts in the several Figures.
Figures 1 and 2 are respectively a side and a front elevation of the improved
trap; Figure 3 is a plan of the same; and Figure 4 is a perspective view showing
the trap set.
Referring to these Drawings, the improved trap comprises a small arched metal
bow or hoop A attached to a cross bar B¹ fitted to or forming part of the lower bar
or base B of the trap. The lower bar or base B is prolonged backwards, and has
fitted at its back or outer end a strong steel spring blade C as in an ordinary trap,
but this spring .or top bar C is formed or fitted with a transverse bar or rod C¹ at
its inner free end lying close to and moving in a plane nearly parallel with the
hoop A. When the trap is set, this spring bar C, C³, is held down by a hinged or
swivelling catch D entering through the forked, end of the spring bar C, passing
over the cross-bar C₁, and hold by a small catch e on a tread or catch plate E in
front, the catch D and tread plate E being hinged or centred on pins held in
separate snugs or bracket pieces D', E. Before the trap is set the catch D is
canted up, as shown in Figure 1, when the top spring bar C is pressed down on the
curved position d' of the catch to cant it to the position in which it is shown in
Figure 4, with the cross bar C of the spring C below it. The tread plate is then
lifted up slightly by hand until the small hook or, catch e on it covers or catches
on to the swivelling catch D, and the pressure of the spring tending to lift the
When the catch
catch D, retains the parts as set, and as shown in Figure 4.
plate E is trod on by the rabbit or other animal it falls to the position shown in
Figure 1, and the catch D is freed. The spring and cross bar C, C, instantaneously
spring up in close proximity with the fixed bow or hoop A.
For small sizes of traps a mouse trap or other similar spring may be used instead
of the form of bent blade spring shown.
The trap is set in front of the rabbit's hole with the hoop A in line and across
the hole, so that when the animal comes out it puts its head through the hoop
before or just when it treads on the catch plate E in front, and the cross bar C
being suddenly freed it catches the rabbit's neck between it and the hoop A above,
immediately killing the animal. If the rabbit should be entering the hole its head
and fore-legs are through the hoop A before it treads on the catch plate E and
the animal is firmly caught by the middle, but the rabbit is not mangled or torn
as in the ordinary trap in use. The releasing catch plate E is in front of the hoop
or bow A, and so placed in relation to it that the animal to be caught must have
its head or body within the hoop when the spring C is freed by its own tread. A
fixed guard plate F attached to the base and in front of the tread plate E is
provided, on which the rabbit on issuing from the hole can press without setting-

page_text: off the trap, and this allows the rabbit to advance until its head is well under
the bow A before its feet rest on the movable tread plate E which springs the
trap.
If a dog or bird should alight or step on the tread plate or catch E, it springs
the trap, but the animal is not caught or injured unless (as would be unlikely) it
held its head or body partly within the hoop A. The trap thus only kills or
catches rabbits or other animals which pass through it (without mangling them)
and need not therefore be removed to avoid injuring hounds when a hunt takes
place over the ground where such traps are set, as is necessary when the old form
of traps are used with great trouble and inconvenience to the keepers, who must
remove them before the hunt and afterwards re-set them.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention and the manner of
performing the saine, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise
details herein described and delineated, but what I consider novel and original, and
therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the hereinbefore in part recited
Letters Patent is,-The,construction of a rabbit or vermin trap in which the
animal is caught between a fixed hoop (A) and a spring bar (C, C¹) released by its
tread on a catch plate (E), substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth in
reference to the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Douglas, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty one.