Innovation for those who hate meeces to pieces
If you “build a better mousetrap,” Ralph Waldo Emerson supposedly told us, “the world will beat a path to your door.”
But, c’mon, who does that anymore?
Roger Arquer, it turns out.
Using off-the-shelf items such as beer glasses and soy sauce bottles, Arquer has built traps designed “only to catch mice, not to kill them. It’s up to the catcher to decide the future of the mouse.”
One of his coolest designs he calls Mouse in a Light Bulb. He cuts a large light bulb, lays it on its side, and then inserts a small weight and, natch, a chunk of cheese. When the critter enters, the weight “is released and the light bulb tilts straight up, catching the mouse inside.”
You can see the magic in the three photographs below.
The triptych of photos is worthy of display in the Tate Gallery.
So many metaphors and connections here, Dan, about the trapped, the trapper and the world we live in. The greedy and easily manipulated mouse, the controlling but invisible hand that seeks to take him away and the stark clarity of machined items, made in mass, to scale up this endeavor.
Not sure you intended to, but this was chilling to see.
Great comment Seth… now who moved my cheese?!
This trap is a great innovation (and good use of old, inefficient light bulbs).
Its also art.
But in our Connecticut town, we prefer to coexist with animals (even if we think they are pests). They’re just trying to live like the rest of us.
Does there need to be a weight in the bulb to mitigate the mouse attempting to climb out and rolling the bulb back over?
This is great. I often get the feeling that we’re about to be hit by a wave of innovation that will turn our world upside down. Designers with brains wired in this new digital age are processing things so differently. I recently read Rapture For The Geeks by Richard Dooling (good read by the way) and then I sat down with my kids and watched WALL.E. What an eye opener.
@seth —
Fascinating points all.
And yet, this mousetrap is supposed to be better because it’s kinder and gentler. No death. Only isolation — but also the promise of release.
It’s not the death penalty. It’s solitary confinement — with a window.
Regardless of one’s thoughts/feelings about catching vs. killing mice, this is sheer innovative brilliance. As Dave Freeman pointed out, it does feel like the world is about to be hit with a wave of innovative genius. Thanks for posting this Dan (and as you said, chilling comment from Seth).
With Gratitude,
Jeremiah
if such a small weight can hold it down then wouldn’t the mouse just as easily push it down to be free?