RAT, MOUSE, AND INSECT TRAP.
The bait spins, the mouse loses its balance and falls.
The mouse climbs the flaring outer wall, enters an opening in the upper chamber, and stands on a platform facing bait impaled on a rotatable spool. When the mouse reaches for the bait, the spool revolves, the mouse loses its balance, and it falls onto a pair of pivoted trap doors. The doors swing apart, drop the mouse into the lower compartment, and close again. A rotating baffler with wings beneath the doors turns whenever the mouse attempts to climb back up.
“My trap is advantageous over many other traps for the reason that it is self-setting, and also for the reason that when it is once baited the bait will remain in service for a long period owing to inability of animals to remove it and inaccessibility of the bait to other animals, such as dogs and cats.”— Louis Haege, from the specification
And the world did not beat a path to his door — so he tried again in 1930.