Victor Choker Mouse Trap
Victor Choker Mouse Trap
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- The Animal Trap Company of Lititz, Pennsylvania manufactured the “Victor Choker Mouse Trap” with four trap mechanisms around 1925. Since the U.S. Patent Office was formally established in 1838, it has granted more than forty-four hundred mousetrap patents, more than any other invention. John Mast heeded Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice to, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door” and in 1899 built the more familiar snap trap which received its patent in 1903. Simple and effective, Mast’s trap is the best-selling mousetrap of all time. However, inventors are still attempting to improve upon Mast’s design—the Patent Office grants about 40 patents for mousetraps a year, and it receives almost ten times as many patent requests!
- The simple mousetrap is a testament to American ingenuity. Inventors and innovators have sought to deal with the mice in different ways - some traps are “beheaders,” some “imprisoners,” and some are “mashers.” No matter the design, the mousetrap has an undeniable grasp on the American imagination, with board games, gambling apparatus, and even movies being based on this pervasive mammal and the attempts to capture it.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- Mouse Trap
- mousetrap
- date made
- 1869 - 1925
- maker
- Animal Trap Company
- place made
- United States: Pennsylvania, Lititz
- place used
- Canada: Ontarian
- Physical Description
- steel (overall material)
- wood (overall material)
- ID Number
- DL.318955.0001
- catalog number
- 318955.0001
- accession number
- 318955
- Credit Line
- Dorothy M. and Mary A. Lyons
- subject
- Animals
- Household Tools and Equipment
- Pest Control
- See more items in
- Cultural and Community Life: Domestic Life
- Artifact Walls exhibit
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Comments
I found one of these in my grandfather's basement in 1962. I still have it and it works just fine. I'm surprised it never caught on. Much better than the snap trap. No mess.
Matthew Poole
Sat, 2015-10-31 17:28
Kevin Coffee
Sun, 2016-02-28 10:45