There are good trap is introduced into a choker trap. Although this transfer reasons for this shift of the onus from proving homology to crosses the boundary between artifact systems, which users proving analogy in traps. An inventor could even recombine traps do not contain a fine structure or code that can decide parts of different artifacts, which he both invented himself. The software performance prove convergence.
Conversely, the following review of historical trap records adopts the wire parts of two different traps are not homologous just perspective on functional systems traps , whereas a because their atomic structure is identical. Inventors are free in their choice of materials. Thus, Fixing Terms many mouse traps from the second half of the twentieth century rehash older designs using modern materials like Terms need to distinguish functions irrespective of the cardboard, rubber band, plastics, or especially durable historical parts carrying them.
It is useless to speak of a alloys of steel Drummond a. One should not, metallic platform, for example, if the part carrying that therefore, conclude that the inventors have each arrived at function was not metallic or not a platform in precursors. An analogous nature of parts does not reveal firmly attached. The phylogenies of matter and information can differ. This solution agrees with common sense. No William Chauncey Hooker patented a flat snap trap: inventor ever claims to have an old idea shared with many antecedents, and nobody ever asks him to prove that.
The problem is that an artifact with absolute safety to the person attending thereto, R gone extinct from the pool of actually used items may avoiding the liability of having his fingers caught or injured nevertheless be preserved and inspire recent inventors. While users select attribution of priority to Mast Hope We can either adopt Others falsely credit priority to James Henry Atkinson of the perspective of physical parts and trace their lineage Leeds, UK e.
This increases the likelihood parts due to lateral transfer. Moreover, it could reveal where a In his memoirs, however, Maxim described his reticulate phylogeny contains overlapping, but branching, inventions as automatic cage traps.
The only thing that does not work is This original design had the spring and striker formed taking away a part that carries a function. Current flat snap traps have separate spring and striker because their production and assembly is Continuous History: The Straight Story easier that way.
This particular modification has not been patent-worthy, however, because other kinds of mouse The ancient Egyptian culture was highly pictorial, and traps not flat with separate spring and striker existed trapping fowl was a royal sport. Catching rodents was no before. Nevertheless, rat cage traps made of pottery are also known from ancient Egypt e. Therefore, the fact that the oldest L historical records are bird traps from Egypt cannot be taken VA to mean that these traps were confined to Egypt or to catching birds.
Twisted fibers powered nets, snares, or clubs with skull- crushing spikes Lagercrantz Some ancient bird O traps were strikingly similar to flat snap mouse traps Fig.
Grdseloff a and Scott feature PR restored specimens. Grdseloff b identified hiero- glyphs for this trap kind and traced them back into the old kingdom — BCE. Similar traps survived into recent times Fig. AP Later versions were entirely of wire. Such spring- loaded wire traps are still used for birds in the Mediterranean region. They were also promoted as rodent traps in the nineteenth century.
Ets Julien R Aurouze, Paris, has been decorating their shop window with stuffed rats dangling from these traps ever since FO see www. The display has become a tourist attraction also featured in the film Ratatouille. In none, however, were spring and striker of one wire.
Here, as elsewhere, the historical record poses the Fig. The historical context, into the striker 8 , runs through the tunnel formed by the coil, and however, suggests that the traditional clap-bow trap ends behind the striker 5.
Griffiths , plate Only one side of the base holds a twisted htm. See also Firth and Gunn , p. Niles Eldredge e. For Evolution: All Prerequisites Abound example, the twisted cord of torsion traps was replaced by a coiled wire.
We are not here considering the question whether mouse trap The main success and conservation problem of this history is in fact a case of evolution, but whether it cannot be design remains in trapping song birds today see website of evolutionary in principle, as Behe claimed. Maybe birds are particularly unsuspecting against bait sitting on a twig-like Variation wire structure. Its use as a bird trap may also explain why this design has hardly been recognized as belonging in the The Animal Trap Company, Lititz, PA produced more than history of mouse traps.
Other companies, countries, traditional tinker mouse trap Fig. Slovakian Drummond a, , , , , a, b. The tinker trap Fig. Similar Spring and striker are not formed of one part; the spring has instances of transmission could be provided for other trap an uncoiled middle part looking like the handle of a kinds.
Cyprus-like traps retained the bait hook of ancient Cyprus-like trap see Fig. Lateral transfers are, of course, also instances of transmission though they cross PR rather than a pedal. The Selection AP exchange of wood and fibers for wire necessitated a change from twisted to coiled power source exemplifying the For example, the torsion power source using twisted fiber Hannah principle in the narrower sense. History is as was replaced by wire springs.
Torsion power even survived up to the late nineteenth FO The meta-level question of how the historical records century in Egyptian clap-bow traps Fig. Nowadays, the transmitted in the past, reveals reconstructing, reverse- torsion power source seems to be utterly extinct excepting engineering, and decoding language as further ways of the possibility of relics in some remote regions.
This list does not, by far, Differential reproduction can be expressed as the exhaust the means of time-travel recovery , which ratio of patents filed to patents used. Unfortunately, cultural information has e. Therefore, continuity Drummond b 2 identified 4, US patents suitable of artifact history does not imply a uniformly ticking clock for mouse traps in principle, from which have been of cultural change. The 2 This survey excluded patents for glue traps, electrocuters, trap-guns, traps for burrowing animals, traps that deliver a blow by means other 1 Hildegard Ginzler kindly gave me her synopsis of a symposium held than a swinging striker, and jaws or gin traps in which both jaws are during the 50th anniversary of the Tinker Museum in Zilina, Slovakia, strikers moving toward the quarry as opposed to jaws in which only read to the Heritage Club of Neroth, Germany, in If the below evidence is regarded as forming a lineage, These figures compare quite well with an estimate in lateral transfer necessarily has to bridge the apparent jumps by US Commissioner of Patents Samuel S.
Sparks in design. This may not commercial value Basalla For the among patents in general due to a popular quotation largest part of history, however, it seems quite reasonable.
These naturefacts, as trap inventor has been crestfallen to find no such path Basalla calls inventions from naturally occurring beaten to his door.
That is, they might be much older than ingredient in the success selection of artifacts. The their earliest records suggest. The trap Ad hoc dead-fall traps are of irreducible simplicity VA could be placed were visitors would not see it, unlike the consisting of an errant slab or other heavy object as cage traps, chokers, and dead-fall traps dominating the striker, some sticks arranged to hold it up but to give way scene before Hornell ; Hellwig, unpublished3.
All O one stick or other object that also holds the bait. As caged arrangement of sticks Fig. If the striker is R trapping function. On the one hand, a flat surface that can be a log, the base is usually another log, and upright posts at used for advertising is a spandrel Gould and Lewontin ; both sides prevent the striker from missing the base see FO Sole, this issue. On the other hand, advertisements affect Gibson , p. He features 18 variants of which only one shows the figure-four design of Fig.
The remainder of this contribution widens the perspective Prefabricated Dead-Fall Traps to include more than one lineage and discuss the implica- tions for material culture evolution. Prefabricated dead-fall traps are produced independent of the site and time of operation. Base and striker are often boards.
I refer Illuminations in manuscripts of the fable Mashal ha- to a copy of his manuscript handed to me by David Drummond. PR Reconstruction from Drummond , Fig. In another Renaissance torsion trap, the twisted cord sits at the pivot and the striker is inserted directly into the twisted Fig. Mascall recorded this design as recorded by Master of Flemalle, , and Mascall Replica from Drummond , Fig. When the bait Lagercrantz , Fig. Many antique striker moves degrees. This trap could be regarded as a opponent to the striker see Fig.
These are not the only not coiled wire, is both striker and spring Fig. Again, artifacts, all connected by lateral transfer recombination of church history provides an early record Tanner ; parts , and tracing their reticulate phylogeny towards a Lagercrantz An illustration can also be found in a range of modern traps and other artifacts.
The important conclusion for material culture Appendix 3. Another variant hinged the striker with two evolution is not whether Fig. Variants of these designs have been patented later e. VA The wire spring is an easily identifiable part. As mentioned L-shaped Sidney Earl , of Corry and Horace above, the simplest wire springs are rather straight but bent in Tinker of Meadville, PA, patented L-shaped rat traps set position.
They only claim iron, can also be found in gin traps Haddon-Riddoch O The wire spring enters the involute mouse trap record with curved ends and a middle loop used as striker Mascall , PR see Fig. Drummond and Dagg R risking plastic deformation. Four different conditions of the spring part exist in these traps Fig. Condition a can also change spring and striker Fig. Finally, condition c can change into condition d by elongating the coil of one end and uncoiling the other end at the same time, running the straight end Other Potential Sources of Inspiration through the coil.
Hence, the parsimonious relationship is: b—a—c—d. This lineage can be rooted near c because this While patents hardly mention sources, further candidates condition can easily change into the one of the wyar Dragin for inspiring Hooker exist. Gamos Richardson of by reducing the coils of both ends until only one curve San Jose, CA, patented a flat snap trap, whose striker remains at each.
As that is the oldest record of a wire spring presses the victim against a loop, thus choking it. Four in mouse traps with one pivoting striker Mascall , it loops made sure that the mouse would be throttled no is probably the ancestral condition.
Other lineages would require far more transformations Hooker patented a mole trap with spring, striker, and, therefore, be less parsimonious. For example, chang- and frame of one wire. Another source from a widening the middle loop, folding the coiled ends inward, culture that did not protect intellectual property is detailed uncoiling one end, elongating the coil of the other end, and above see Fig. The fusion of two parts the scope of this contribution.
Hence, the interesting question is whether branching The first part showed: 1 The patented and seminal precursor sub-systems can be isolated from traps. These statements do not nious phylogeny Fig.
In conclusion, the choice apply to trap making. Trap history may be evolutionary between branching or reticulation e. An evolutionary perspective on dilemma. As long as lateral transfer only means recom- artifact history alters expectations and induces a search for bination of parts and not true blending, a reticulate precursors in the first place. While a comprehensive account of mouse Torsion power may have been transmitted laterally from trap history would include all the records, it is beyond the Egyptian torsion traps to prefabricated dead-fall traps.
A scope of this article. Instead, I focused on traps that have simple addition of twisted cord and following rod one pivoting striker and neglected other trap kinds e. The simplicity of this evolutionary account of mouse trap history must be able to addition does not exclude the possibility of convergent accommodate all trap kinds. Widening the perspective to invention. In the absence of further evidence, however, include traps with one pivoting striker is a first step to see lateral transfer via a diffuse culture pool is more AP which challenges must be met.
Its base is similar to that part of the tomb-of-Khety trap Fig. Stretching this side of the base and tile points, words, and other artifacts reviewed in Collard shrinking the other could transform the tomb-of-Khety base FO et al.
This hybrid nature of the torsion made of one part. The source used for language trees twisted cord Fig. An uncoiled wire spring was also used in chokers inferring language relations by comparing basic words like: Mascall Once available, wire should have been an obvious improve- Likewise, the analyzed DNA was not viral or from ment of chokers, and lateral transfer between two kinds of transposable elements. The only con- strikers with a treadle Fig. Suppose that Stone Age people used stone flakes, bone chips, sticks, fiber strings, and other simple tools but never combined them into spears, arrows, bows, nets, fishing rod and line, etc.
No cumulative evolution of material culture would have occurred. Thus, the recombination of parts i. Dashed lines represent coiled parts of the wire that carries the spring An experimental study of chimpanzee behavior supports function. Marshall-Pescini and Whiten have Frost As explained in the text, the parsimonious relationship is b—a—c—d.
The likely root at c yields a gains. This VA suggests that an aptness of humans for recombining mental structures makes the difference between cumulative and non-cumulative cultures. By extrapolating from mental to striker with a string plus latch to hinging it with a locking physical recombination, this result also bears on artifact bar.
PR with latch on string, that of the French Fig. Ancient Egyptian torsion traps already hinged the Another question of interest is whether an evolutionary striker with a locking bar and bait hook Fig. Bait hooks and locking bars were also used in sufficient. FO An extreme case of lateral transfer occurred in the The historical records from part I.
Increasingly complex artifacts require increasingly Lateral Transfer Leads to Cumulative Evolution sophisticated means of transmitting cultural information.
Without observational way. In that way, the ability to produce stone flakes could spread Acknowledgments Thanks to Hildegard Ginzler for an unpublished through a population, but no more sophisticated technology manuscript and Babette Ellen Kottkamp for a documentary film on the could evolve from it. Models of cultural evolution through last Slovakian tinkers, but most of all to David Drummond for much imitation are troubled, however, by the infidelity of cultural help and comments on the manuscript.
Figures 1a, 2d, 3b, 4a, b, and 5a, d, e, appear courtesy of David Drummond; Fig. There- courtesy of Christoph Gasser, and Fig. Branching, blending, and the evolution of cultural similarities and differences among human populations. Evol Hum Behav. Adams R. Mod Lang Notes. Crouch H. Come buy a mouse-trap, or, a new way to catch an old rat.
Being a true relation of one Peters a Post of Roterdam [ R Anderson HC Animal-trap. Patent no. United States London: Iohn Hammond; FO Andrews G Animal-trap. Vorstellung wie es bey Processen insgemein her zu gehen Pflege? Basalla G. The evolution of technology.
Cambridge: Cambridge und was man gutes darbey zu haffen habe? Pfolenhauer und Sohn, Coburg. Behe MJ. New York: Free Press; Drummond DC. Proceedings of Bellis M History of the mousetrap.
DigitalCommons inventors. University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Accessed on: 12 Dec Bellwood P. Phylogeny vs reticulation in prehistory. Drummond D. Tools ;— Berg G. Medieval mouse traps. Stud Ethnogr Ups. Folk Life. Boyd R, Richerson PJ. Culture and the evolutionary process. Chicago: Drummond D. Nineteenth century mouse traps patented in the U. Chicago University Press; Why culture is common but cultural evolution Drummond DC. Better mouse traps: the history of their development is rare.
STC Fragment: t. Reproduction of original in the British Library. Attributed to Leonard Mascall. Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Mich. Trapping Early works to Title pages England 16th century. Early English books tract supplement interim guide Harl. APA: Mascall, L. A booke of engines and traps to take polcats, buzardes, rattes, mice and all other kindes of vermine and beasts whatsoeuer, most profitable for all warriners, and such as delight in this kinde of sport and pastime.
AU - Berners, Juliana, b. AU - Mascall, Leonard, d. Zeeb Rd. Set language NL EN.
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