Back to the Drawing Board

In these first few months, Martha had learned that marketing a new product was not an easy task. Some customers were very demanding. For example, one national retailer had placed a large order with instructions that Trap-Ease America was to deliver the order to the loading dock at one of the retailer’s warehouses between 1:00 and 3:00 PM on a specified day. When the truck delivering the order arrived after 3 P.M, the retailer had refused to accept the shipment. The retailer had told Martha it would be a year before she got another chance. As Martha sat down at her desk, she realized she needed to rethink her marketing strategy. Perhaps she had missed something or made some mistake that was causing sales to be so slow. Glancing at the quotation again, she thought that perhaps she should send the picky retailer and other customers a copy of Emerson's famous quote.

1. The tube bent in the middle at a 30-degree angle, so that when the front part of the tube rested on a flat surface, the other end was elevated.
2. The elevated end held a removable cap into which the user placed bait (cheese, dog food, or some other aromatic tidbit).
3. The front end of the tube had a hinged door.
4. When the trap was "open," this door rested on two narrow "stilts" attached to the two bottom corners of the door.



The simple trap worked very efficiently. A mouse, smelling the bait, entered the tube through the open end. As it walked up the angled bottom toward the bait, its weight made the elevated end of the trap drop downward. This action elevated the open end, allowing the hinged door to swing closed, trapping the mouse. Small teeth on the ends of the stilts caught in a groove on the bottom of the trap, locking the door closed. The user could then dispose of the mouse while it was still alive, or the user could leave it alone for a few hours to suffocate in the trap.