IMPROVED MAN-TRAP. 55 



XL 



Description of a Machine for securing Persons attempting 

 Depredations, without affecting their Lives or Limbs. By 

 Mr. Robert Salmon, of Woburn*. 



SIR, 



1 Beg leave to submit to the Society of Arts &c. a Man- |^ l a "'^ a h p ^ ie * 

 trap, which I hope will meet with their approbation. To pett y thieves, 

 those who live in the country it is needless to explain the 

 frequency of petty depredations committed on gardens, or- 

 chards, &c, which are sometimes very vexatious. Few per- but the corn- 

 sons would like to endanger the life or limb of the depreda- ^"^.^3 

 tor by setting the common steel man-trap; yet it is presumed 

 there are but few, who would not wish to detect the offen- 

 der. The instrument which I have the honour to submit to 

 the Society is for the purpose of catching and holding the 

 person without injury. 



At the agricultural meeting at Woburn last summer an Contrivance to 

 ingenious invention for a similar purpose was produced by secure a thief 

 Sir Theophilus Biddulph; it consisted of a wooden box, j ur i n g him 

 containing two springs in iron barrels, and two chains pass- 

 ing over and round them ; when this was set, the chainswere 

 withdrawn from round the barrels, and extended to a certain 

 distance. A trigger then kept the trap from closing, the 

 whole was then covered over with thin iron plates, so that if 

 a person set his foot on these plates his leg dropped into the 

 box, and the chains closed round it and held the leg; but 

 as the box was about three feet square and a foot deep, it 

 was requisite that it should at setting be let into theground, 

 which would be a work of considerable labour ; and when too cumber- 

 done it would be difficult to dispose of the stuff from the some * 

 hole, or to conceal the trap ; and as the whole apparatus was 

 cumbersome and expensive, it appeared tome not to be well 

 applicable in practice. 



* Trans of the Sec. Arts, vol, XXVII, p. 181. The silver medal of 

 the Society was voted to Mr. Salmon foi this inveutiou . 



I think 



