MOUSE-TRAP.
The mouse steps on a disk; the disk tips; the disk recovers.
A mouse climbs onto the flat top of a wire-mesh cage and walks toward bait mounted on a central rod. The rod rises from a disk that loosely fills a large opening in the top, balanced on the apex of a cone suspended inside the cage. The mouse's weight tips the disk and the mouse falls through the opening into the cage body. A counterweight on the rod returns the disk to horizontal, and the trap is set for the next mouse.
“This invention relates to fishing and trapping, and more especially to traps which are ever set; and the object of the same is to produce a trap for mice or other small animals which permits the victim to fall through the top of the trap into the cage beneath, and then sets itself ready for another victim.”— Noa Dymenberg, from the specification
And the world did not beat a path to his door.