US282636A - Rat-proof building - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

J. HICKS.

RAT PROOF BUILDING. No. 282,636. Patented Aug. 7, 1883.

WITNESSES:

ATTORNEYS.

IL PETERS, MW. Wm M:

UNITED STATES PATENT @rrrcn.

JOSHUA HICKS, or SANDFORD, INDIANA.

RAT-PROOF BUILDING.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 282,636, dated August 7, 1883. Application filed June 4, 1883. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may-concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSHUA HICKS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sandford,

in the county of Vigo and State of Indiana,-

have invented a new and useful Rat-Proof Building, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to rat-proof buildings 5 and itsobject is to provide simple, inexpen-,

sive, and efficient means for preventing the access of rats, mice, and other vermin into such buildings as barns, out-buildings, corn-cribs, and the like, and to effect the extermination of the same should they endeavor to-.secure entrance into the same.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of a building embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken through the same.

Referring to the drawings, A designates the building proper, which may be of the desired construction, but is elevated upon a brick or stone foundation, B, extending entirely around the building, and some distance above and below the ground, as shown. In buildings of this kind, where there is a simple foundation, the rats will burrow under the foundation from the surface of the ground outside and up under the floor of the building. The rats always burrow from the outside close to the foundation, and to obviate this, after the building is constructed I form an excavation around the entire foundation, extending from the latter about two feet, and having a depth of three or four inches. This is filled with gravel, 0, preferably composed of both coarse and fine qualities, and this gravel bed prevents the burrowing of the rats and serves to prevent them from effecting an entrance under the foundation. Suitableventilating-openings, D, may be formed in the foundation; but these are covered with a screen or metallic network, E, to bar the entrance.

To provide for the extermination of the rats,

| should they come about the building, a long tube, F, is preferably secured in the foundation, and has an open mouth, G, but is closed at its rear end, H, as shown. The rats will enter this tube, as it affords the only opening through the foundation, when a .rod, I, is adapted to have its head J, which corresponds in shape to the interior of the tube, inserted at the mouth. The inner face of this head J is provided with projecting pins or prongs K, which, as the head follows up the rat, will kill the animal and impale it, when as the rod is withdrawn from the tube the rat will also be carried out by the prongs.

The operation and advantages of my invention will be readily understood. It is very simple and inexpensive, and can be readily applied to infested buildings without chang ing the construction of the. same materially.

I claim as my invention 1. The combination, with the building, of the tube connected therewith, and-having the open mouth and closed back, and the follower-rod, having the head corresponding to the interior of the tube, and providedv with the pins or prongs on its inner face, as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The combination of the foundation, .extending above and below the ground, and provided with the tube having the open mouth and closed back wall, the structure mounted upon the foundation, the gravel bed extending from the foundation on all sides, and having a depth below the surface, and the follower-rod carrying the head having the pins or prongs, andadapted to work in the tube, as and forthe purpose set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoingas my own I have hereto affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses. I

, JOSHUA HICKS.

Witnesses: 1 7

WM. MACK, W. A. Dox.

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