Rat Trap Page: 3 of 5
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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
GREENE E. NEWELL, OF ELIASVILLE, TEXAS.
RAT-TRAP.1,175,797.
Specification of Letters Patent.
Patented Mar. 14, 1916.
Application filed April 14, 1915. Serial No. 21,412.
To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that I, GREENE E. NEWELL,
a citizen of the United States, residing at
Eliasville, in the county of Young and State
5 of Texas, have invented new and useful Im-
provements in Rat-Traps, of which the fol-
lowing is a specification.
An object of the invention is to provide a
trap for use in catching rodents such as
10 mice, rats and the like.
The invention contemplates, among other
features, the provision of a trap which is
electrically operated in that it provides en-
trances to a compartment of the trap and
15 which entrances are electrically closed after
the rodent has entered the compartment.
The rodent now passes into the second com-
partment, which results in the electrical op-
eration of the entrances of the first com-
20 partment to reopen the same, the rodent be-
ing confined and held in the second com-
partment and prevented from returning to
the first compartment so that the first com-
partment is again ready, upon the opening
25 of the entrances, to receive another victim.
In the further disclosure of the invention
reference is to be had to the accompanying
drawings, constituting a part of this specifi-
cation. in which similar characters of refer-
30 ence denote corresponding parts in all the
views, and in which:
Figure 1 is a side elevation of the trap;
Fig. 2 is a front elevation; Fig. 3 is a vertical
longitudinal sectional view; Fig. 4 is a ver-
35 tical transverse sectional view taken on the
line 4-4 in Fig. 1, the full lines indicating
the open position of the closures and the
dotted lines the closed position thereof;
Fig. 5 is a vertical transverse sectional view
40 taken on the line 5-5 in Fig. 1; and Fig. 6
is a diagrammatic view of the electrical con-
nection.
Referring more particularly to the views,
I provide a wire-like casing 10 divided by a
45 transverse vertical partition 11 to form com-
partments 12 and 13. The compartment 12
is provided with a plurality of opposed
openings 14 and mounted to swing on the
wire-like casing 10 are a plurality of verti-
50 cally movable closures 15 for the openings
14, suitable arms 16 having connection with
the closures 15 and projecting upwardly to-
ward each other to have their free ends con-
nected with the armature 16' of an electro-
55 magnet 17. the armature being mounted in
any suitable manner for vertical movementtoward and away frcm the magnet 17 and
permanently magnetized as clearly indicated
in Fig. 6. The casing 10 is provided with
a suitable handle 18 and a chamber 19 also 60
forms a part of the casing to support an
electric battery 20.
A platform 21 of some current conduct-
ing material is arranged in the bottom of
the compartment 12. and is supported on 65
springs 22, said platform having an edge
thereof hinged to the casing in any suitable
manner. 'ihe partition 11 is provided with
an opening 23 providing access from the
first compartment 12 to the second compart- 70
ment 13 and a wire-like guard 24 is ar-
ranged upon the partition to encircle the
opening 23, said guard permitting of pas-
sage from the compartment 12 to the coin-
partment 13 but preventing passage from 75
the compartment 13 back to the compart-
ment 12.
The compartment 13 has a platform 25
arranged therein and supported on springs
26, said platform being somewhat similar to 80
the platform 21 and also made of a current
conducting material. To the under side of
the platform 21 but insulated therefrom is
a contact 27 and immediately beneath the
platform 21 are contacts 28 and 29. There 35
is also provided a rigid contact 30 immedi-
ately above the platform 21 and the plat-
form 21 normally engages the contact 30,
but when depressed is adapted to engage the
contact 28, with the contact 27 on the under 90
side of the platform but insulated there-
from adapted to engage the contact 29.
Now referring to the diagrammatic view,
it will be seen that a wire a passes from the
battery 20 and connects with the platform 95
21; that a wire b connects with the contact
28 and with the electro-magnet 17; that a
wire c connects with the electro-magnet 17
and with the contact 30 and also that a wire
d connecting with the wire c has connection 100
with the contact 29, still another wire e hav-
ing connection with the contact 27 and re-
turning to the battery 20 in the manner in-
dicated. Now with regard to the platform
25, it will be seen that there is a wire f con- 105
necting with the wire b and terminating in
a contact 31 adjacent the underside of the
platform 25, a wire g connecting with the
platform 25 and returning to the battery 20.
Now in the operation of the device de- 110
scribed the closures 15 are normally open
so that the rodent can pass through either
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Newell, Greene E. Rat Trap, patent, Date Unknown; [Washington D.C.]. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth857866/m1/3/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.