Wednesday 11 September 2013

Little Nipper



The first spring-loaded mouse trap was invented by William C. Hooker of Abingdon, Illinois, who received US patent 528671 for his design in 1894. James Henry Atkinson, a British inventor who in 1897 invented a prototype called the "Little Nipper", probably had seen the Hooker trap in the shops or in advertisements and used it as the basis of his model. It is a simple device with a heavily spring-loaded bar and a trip to release it. The design is such that the mouse's neck or spinal cord will be broken, or its ribs or skull crushed, by the force of the bar. 
Simple, brutal, but effective.





















'Three Blind Mice' oil on panel by Dylan Lisle.

Three blind mice, three blind mice,
See how they run, see how they run,
They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a thing in your life
As three blind mice?

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