US2311490A - Trap - Google Patents

Description

J. TURPAN Feb. 16, 1943.

TRAP

Filed Dec. 6, 1941 HINVENTOR. James Iuvfian ATTORNEY:

Patented Feb. 16, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE TRAP James Turpan, Paterson, N. J.

Application December 6, 1941, Serial No. 421,888

2 Claims.

This invention relates to traps, as ratand mouse-traps, for instance, and it follows a well known construction in so far as it includes, with a base, a loop or generally U-shaped clamp pivoted to the base to move in an upwardly curved arc and normally spring-urged into coactive clamping relation to the base but adapted to be held set by a lever pivoted to the base and to traverse the free end portion of the clamp so as to hold the latter in clamping or set state when the lever is itself held against freeing the clamp by a suitable detent readily moved to release the lever when the rodent disturbs the bait associated with the detent, usually by being carried thereby. But according to my invention, instead of the bait being carried by the detent, the latter is to coact with the lever to clamp the bait, thereby holding the clamp in its active or set position, whereby when the bait has been sufiiciently eaten away or moved by the rodent the trap will be sprung; and, further, the detent is pivoted to the base so that it may lie prone thereon in. the sprung state of the trap so that the latter will have a quite compact form for packing with others in small compass. The mentioned U-shaped clamp is usually difiicult to set because its cross-bar, in order effectively to clamp and destroy the rodent, should in its sprung state lie flat against the base and close to its edge. According to this invention I further provide the clamp with a projection or projections extending beyond the base thus to provide a convenient finger-hold for shifting the clamp in setting it. I accomplish these objects, furthermore, so that the trap is at least as inexpensive, if not more so, than others of its class.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the improved trap in set state;

Fig. 2 is an end elevation thereof; and

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the trap in sprung state with the detent upstanding or out of the positions it would normally assume in such state of the trap. V

l is the base, being a flat rectangular slab of wood, as usual. The spring-urged clamping means here comprises the U-shaped clamp 2 and the coiled spring 3 both formed of wire, and these parts may be formed and assembled in the usual way so that the spring tends to hold the clamp in the position of Fig. 3 while permitting it to be pivotally displaced to the position of Fig. l, to wit: One end of the wire forming the clamp is rebent to provide an eye 2a while its other end, 21), may be bent to extend through the spring, through the staples 4 driven into the base, and finally through the eye, one end of the spring lying against the base and the other overlying one leg of the clamp.

5 is the mentioned detent, in this example being formed of a suitable length of wire. It exists with a coil 5a midway the length of the wire and from the coil the extremities of the wire extend generally in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the coil and have their extremities 5b diverging in a direction from said plane and their extreme ends rebent so that the detent is generally hook-shaped. The detent is universally pivoted to the base, its coil 50. being penetrated by a staple B driven into the base.

The lever to coact with the detent is indicated at I as formed of wire and is pivoted in the usual way to a staple 8 driven into the base at the side of the pivoting axis of the clamp opposite to that to which the clamp is normally urged by the spring and beyond the cross-bar 2c of the clamp when the latter is shifted to set position.

To set the trap the clamp is shifted from the position of Fig. 3 to that of Fig. 1 and the lever made to traverse the transverse portion or crossbar 2c of the clamp and to extend between the extremities of the detent and below the seat formed by its diverging portions, whereby to receive between itself and such seat a crust of bread a or other piece of food which will resist the stress of the spring. When the bait a is sufiiciently disturbed by the rodent the trap ,will be sprung.

If the bait is sufficiently stiii and also long enough to extend appreciably beyond the sides of the detent, more or less as shown in Fig. 2, once set the trap can be handled quite roughly without danger of its being sprung; the detent is hook-shaped so as in baiting the trap to insure that when the bait has been engaged in its rebend it will remain in a definite position until the lever is allowed to bear against it. Since the detent is universally pivoted to the base it may assume, in the sprung state of the trap, the prone position shown in dotted outline in Fig. 2, thus reducing the vertical dimension of the trap and so rendering it more compact for packing. The extremities of the detent diverge so as to avoid any chance of the lever catching under one of them thus to prevent the springing of the trap.

The cross-bar 2c of the clamp should, in the sprung state of the clamp, lie close to the righthand margin of the base for the reason hereinbefore set forth. According to the usual con struction it is diflicult to obtain a finger-hold on the clamp in the effort to set the tnap, and when the clamp has been started toward set position it sometimes slips from the operators grip and may snap back on his fingers. Hence, I form the clamp with projections 2d which will extend beyond the edge of the base in the sprung state of the clamp; in this example these are rebends formed in the wire of the clamp at each juncture of its cross-bar with the adjoining parts of the wire. There is a projection at each such juncture so as to be convenient to either a rightor left-handed operator.

The detent is universally pivoted to the base for the following reasons: The gap between those portions of its extremities which, on the one hand, reach perpendicularly fromthe axisof coil 5a and, on the other hand, provide the ends of such extremities should be of such dimension. as to receive av crust of bread of a size to withstand the strain imposed on it when the trap is set. But the cross-wise dimension of the detent otherwise, as in a direction between said portions and ends of its extremities, should be considerably less so that the detent may assume the aforesaid relation to the base in which the trap will be most compact for shipping. The universalit of pivotal movement of the detent also has the advantage that the detent is more delicately responsive to disturbance in the set state of the trap.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In a trap, the combination of a base, a clamp above and confined to the base to move in a definite upwardly curved path and spring-urged into clamping relation to the base at one side of the axis of said path, a lever above the base and pivoted thereto and adapted to traverse the clamp when the latter is displaced around said axis into opposed relation to the ,portion of the base at the other side of said axis, and a detent above the base having a universal pivotal connection therewith and movable from a recumbent to :an upstanding position and having, projecting from its pivot, fork-forming portions providing spaced bait-supporting seats arranged to face said pivot, said detent being so positioned relatively to the pivot of the lever that when the lever is in said traversing relation to the clamp said lever may be entered between said fork forming portions to coact with the seats thereof to clamp the bait.

2. Thejtrap set forth in claim 1 characterized by the fork-forming portions of the detent diverging.

JAMES TURPAN.

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