Among Aesop's centuries-old fables, there is the tale of The Mice in Council. Here is the story:
Once upon a time the mice, being sadly distressed by the persecution of the cat, resolved to call a meeting to decide upon the best means of getting rid of their continual annoyance. Many plans were discussed and rejected. At last a young mouse got up and proposed that a bell should be hung round the cat's neck, that they might for the future always have notice of her coming, and so be able to escape.
This proposition was hailed with the greatest applause, and was agreed to at once unanimously. Upon which an old mouse, who had sat silent all the while, got up and said that he considered the contrivance most ingenious and that it would, no doubt, be quite successful. But he had only one short question, namely, which of them would bell the cat?
It is one thing to propose, another to execute.
Indeed. But as insightful as that analysis is, it is quite possible it is also the inspiration for a unique method of rat eradication, for which inventors Joseph Barad and Edward E. Markoff were awarded U.S. Patent 883,611 for their "Device Employed for Exterminating Rats, Mice, and Other Animals".
What makes their method unique is that it doesn't involve actually exterminating any rats, mice, or other animals. Barad and Markoff's innovation instead flips the script on Aesop's fable. They invented a device for belling the rat: Here are Figures 1 through 5 from the patent:
They explain how their elaborate device can succeed in its purpose of eradicating rats without actually exterminating them:
It is a well-known fact that certain animals, as rats, mice and analogous animals of the rodent class are naturally excessively sly and distrustful, even to members of their own family, although at times working toether in harmony, as for example, in carrying off and storing food and articles having considerable weight and bulkiness. It is also known that the sound or tinkline of a bell is as a rule very terrifying to animals of the species named and that if pursued by such sounds they will immediately vacate their haunts and homes, never to return.
The object we have in view is to take advantage of the peculiar characteristic or instinct inherent say in the animal class just referred to, to that end we have invented and produced an extremely simple and inexpensive automatic device or mechanism capable when properly positioned and set of enticing an animal, as a rat, to it so that when he nibbles or touches the bait the previously set tripping means and the annualr spring band or collar, having one or more small bells attached to it, will be released dimultaneously, the thus freed bell-carrying band at the same instant contracting around the rat's neck. The "bell-rat" as it may be termed, then in seeking its burrow or colony announces his coming by the souncds emitted by the bells, thereby frightening the other rats and causing them to flee, thus practically exterminating them in a sure and economical manner.
Alas, the 1908 invention for belling the rat was not successful in the market place as we found no such device available for sale in 2023. The closest we could find is the hamster harness that can be procured from Amazon, which allows the owners of hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, ferrets, and other analogous animals to bell their pets.
From the Inventions in Everything Archives
The IIE team has previously covered other inventions involving traps. Here's the short list:
Labels: technology
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