MOUSE-TRAP
Never needs resetting until the bait is exhausted.
The mouse climbs stepped projections toward a bait hook suspended from a wire arch. Its weight tips a hinged corrugated leaf, dropping it into the main compartment; the leaf then returns to position for the next mouse. Inside, a weighted pivoting board allows passage into a second compartment but tips back to prevent return. A sliding-bar door at the end is opened to drop the accumulated mice into a pail of water.
“With such a trap as I have described there is very little trouble experienced in setting the trap, and having been once set may remain undisturbed so far as the housekeeper is concerned until the bait is exhausted.”— Lester H. Gear, from the specification
And the world did not beat a path to his door.