packaging as content

August 28, 2009

Mason Jar Mousetraps

I saw this “Mason canning jar with lid converted to make a mousetrap, c. 1865.” on the website for Marilynn Gelfman Karp's book: In Flagrante Collecto, caught in the act of collecting. Similar to the later patent below. (Hope they cited prior art…)

I like these inventions that turn a package or a reusable container into something else entirely. The mason jar (or “fruit jar”) was, for a time, a standard, universal part that inventors could design their special-function lids to fit onto. Almost like computers and software: with the right lid/application, your mason jar could become a mousetrap or a minnow catcher, etc. Mason jars were like open source software. Freeware for imprisoning mice. (More rodent travails: here)

(Lots more mason jar traps, after the fold…)

Not all of these traps were for rodents. Insects were frequently imprisoned within jars, as well. Although some inventors went with bottles, rather than “an old fruit jar…”