Electric Mousetrap 1950's/1960's

[Rubberfingers]

As a child, I found an electric mousetrap in my grandfather's shed. From memory, it had a wooden base, with a celluloid or similar "tunnel" on top. The wooden base had two metal strips mounted on it, perhaps an inch apart, with a paxolin square in the centre, halfway along the "tunnel". The metal strips were connected to a length of flex, which you plugged into the mains. The idea was that you put some bait on the paxolin square, plugged it in and when the mouse tried to get at the bait, it would be electrocuted. Obviously grossly unsafe by today's standards, (and pity any poor cat who tried to get the dead mouse out). The flex was, if I remember correctly, brown semi - transparent figure of eight PVC, so I would date it 1950's or early 1960's. I never saw this used. Does anyone know anything about these, I've never seen another one anywhere, and can't find anything like it online.

[Refugee]

They sell battery powered ones with a little inverter in them.
The adverts specify the number of mice they can kill before you need to change the batteries.

[60 oldjohn]

I think you are thinking of the "Uranus" electric mousetrap, made by the "Robert Joliffe Trust" Aston Clinton Bucks. I have one here. re the mouse + cat I wonder how many children tried rescuing the cat. A 100ma fuse was recomended, but when pluged into the lighting circuit it would be 5amp or a power socket maybe 15amp (it would work with 15A fuse)
I would think it was a 1930s design. It could also be run from two 120v HT batteries.
John.

[Peter.N.]

... if you could afford them

Peter

[Refugee]

They sell them:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nk...nic+mouse+trap

[Tractorfan]

Hi,

At the hospital were I worked, we tried making one using some strip board (similar to Veroboard) with each alternate copper strip connected together. It didn't work because, I think, the wee beastie could sense the 50Hz field with its whiskers. maybe we should have used DC? We never got round to experimenting further. So we went out and bought a mousetrap instead!

Cheers,
Pete

[julie_m]

Surely such a device would be illegal today under animal cruelty regulations?

[KeithsTV]

In the late 70s I put together a mouse shocker. Veroboard with alternate tracks wired together and a photo diode and IR led at one end of the board. The bait, a piece of chocolate biscuit, was placed between the led and diode so that Mickey had to put his nose in the IR beam to get the biccy. The interuption triggered a 555 which operated a relay which put the mains across the veroboard. I did fit a 100ohm resistor in series to limit the current. It had always been triggered when I returned home but I don't think it killed the mouse. I moved out of that house not long after.

Subsequent experience has shown that a good old fashioned mouse trap is more effective.

Keith

[emeritus]

re#6, mice are not necessarily put off by 50Hz electric fields.

A work colleague recounted how, when putting in central heating, he had found some of his underfloor wiring gnawed though by a mouse who had evidently been trying to make room to get through the hole though the joist that was occupied by the cable. He also found the remains of the said mouse.

My cousin was watching TV one afternoon when a mouse dashed out from under the wall unit the TV was sitting on, ran to and fro a couple of times, and then dropped down dead. Investigation revealed a gnawed TV mains lead.

I recall reading a warning in my first aid newsletter that the pigments that were {are?} commonly used in electric cables may contain lead compounds for their flexibility that are sweet to taste, and should not be chewed. Perhaps my cousin's mouse had a sweet tooth.

I have found the traditional mouse trap 100% effective with ordinary cheddar cheese as bait.

[Skywave]

Originally Posted by ajs_derby

Surely such a device would be illegal today under animal cruelty regulations?

Possibly not, since mice are classified as vermin.

Al.

[Heatercathodeshort]

It might be kinder to the mice to use an old microwave oven transformer as death would be instant. The only problem that might arise would be total vaporization of the body resulting in an appalling stink throughout the house.
You could of course make a miniature electric chair to strap the little blighters into but that would be a step too far possibly.
They do cause loft fires due to chewed wiring that is often kindled by nest making material. It is really quite a serious problem especially in the country. John.

[Tractorfan]

Hi,
Here in France it's very common to have a three phase supply to a domestic property, and an acquaintance asked me to investigate a problem as when he switched on his outside light, the main RCD tripped. I spent hours tracing the fault to no avail. Eventually, I opened up the local distribution board and found a fried crispy mouse across two of the permanently live incoming busbars. It seemed a pure coincidence that Mickey scampered towards his demise at the exact moment the light was switched on!
Cheers, Pete

[Refugee]

The light must have had a little bit of leakage and it will have added to the leakage caused by the mouse being terminated on the busbars.

[Silicon]

Could a modern TV line output transformer be used to generate lethal voltages to kill rats?
Could I just connect the output of a mains transformer to the TV line output transformer via a relay switch or opto triac?
I would trigger it with an Infra red led circuit.

The local rats seem smarter than mice and avoid the traditional snap type traps.

[Nickthedentist]

Come on guys, all you need's a cat.

Mine brings me at least 2 dead mice a day

[Ed_Dinning]

Hi Silicon, the answer is NO, certaily not if it is connected to the mains.
It will generate high voltages THAT MAY not be lethal to humans if run through a low power inverter at about 15KHz.
Before you start experimenting with this sort of gear a) learn a lot of theory b) get good life insurance for your dependants.


Ed

[G4XWDJim]

When I lived in the country I was troubled by mice eating the rubber petrol pipes to my mowers and outdoor tools in the shed. Did they like the taste?

So I surrounded the shed with a ring of wire a foot away, positioned about 20mm above ground on insulators and connected to a 500 volt transformer with the other wire into the earth.

I did this every night for a week and caught not a single mouse.

Jim

[Heatercathodeshort]

Sorry guys we have blown our cover publishing our battle plans. All the local rats and mice have read this Forum and have noted all the comments and are thus well informed. All the suggestions so far would probably result in the incineration of the premises and you know what they say about rats leaving the sinking ship. Time to think up something that even Bletchley Park would have a problem solving. They are very clever little buxxxxx! John.

[Tractorfan]

Hi,
Our friend's cat wouldn't catch mice already in the house as it regarded them as "family". It would, however, bring in "foreign" mice from outside!
Our cat simply isn't interested in catching anything, so we reverted to traps baited with cheap cooking chocolate. Works every time! Luckily, they haven't touched the wiring - so far!
I think an electric device would have to be powerful enough to dispatch them quickly & humanely without cooking them, as sometimes happens to large moths caught in our HV bug zapper.
Cheers, Pete

[Nickthedentist]

The worst thing we ever did was store some apples off our tree in the garage, which happens to be where I keep a lot of radios.

Within a day, a rat had chewed through the draught excluder under the up-and-over door, and made a nest out of a Sainsbury's carrier bag in a niche high up in the wall. Most annoyingly, it peed on the top of my VHF62 which still bears the stains.

"Humane" traps can work, but releasing the things into the wild takes time and effort. I also used to find mice who'd merely fallen into the plastic bin and couldn't climb out.

But as I said, a cat has solved all these problems for me.