Gun-powered mousetrap

Common card · No. 399216

On August 21, 1882, James Alexander Williams from Fredonia, San Saba County, Texas filed a US patent application (issued as United States patent No. 269,766) for a mousetrap incorporating a handgun, "by which animals which burrow in the ground can be destroyed". The Specification suggests that the device might also be used to kill or injure "any person or thing" that opens the door or window that it is attached to. The patent issued on December 26, 1882 and James Alexander Williams said "The object of my invention is to provide a means by which animals who burrow in the ground can be destroyed, and which the trap will give an alarm each time that it goes off, so that it can be reset."

Read on Wikipedia · Image James Alexander Williams, Public domain