An old engraving of Victorian rat-traps from a book of the 1880s. These large animal traps were designed for rodent infestations. Left is a box with bait protected by a guard. When the rat pushes its nose through the guard, a pivot is triggered rotating the floor, dropping the animal into the tank. The platform returns to its horizontal position. The trap right has bait on a hook within an aperture. When nudged, a mechanism brings down a pronged ‘guillotine’ to impale the animal. The counterweight releases the blade back up to its start position – the dead rat falls into the collection tank.
An old engraving of two Victorian rat-traps. It is from a mechanical engineering book of the 1880s. These large ‘mousetraps’ were a baited animal trap designed primarily to deal with rodent infestations. The left version is a box with a hinged lid. Bait is protected by a guard. When the rat enters and pushes its nose through the guard, a pivot is activated rotating the floor downwards, dropping the animal into the cistern below whilst the sprung platform returns to its horizontal position. On the trap on the right, bait is held on a hook within an aperture. When a rat nudges the hook, a mechanism is tripped bringing down a twin-pronged ‘guillotine’ to impale the animal. The counterweight releases the blade back up to its starting position whilst the dead rat falls into the collection tank.
Size: 4961px × 3243px
Photo credit: © M&N / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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