ANIMAL-TRAP.
A steel trap that can be rebuilt to work upside down.
The trap operates as an ordinary spring-jaw steel trap when set on the ground. The animal presses down on the bait-pan, which disengages a notched post from a latch and releases the spring-pressed jaw. To use the trap inverted on a tree, the trapper withdraws two pins, shifts the treadle-bar to a second fulcrum hole, and reverses the latch so that it engages the opposite notch. In this configuration the animal must pull downward on the bait-pan to spring the trap, which is fastened to the tree by a hooked dog driven into the wood.
“With a trap constructed according to the invention, it is possible for a trapper to prosecute his employment under varying conditions and that, too, without encumbering his outfit with a double supply of traps which are severally adapted to but a single service.”— David W. Solomon, from the specification
And the world did not beat a path to his door.