A freshly killed mouse found inside a 155-year-old mousetrap has left museum curators baffled.

It was discovered yesterday after being caught in the unbaited Victorian trap on display behind impenetrable glass.

The unlucky rodent had managed to sneak past security, exterior doors and museum staff, and somehow clambered its way up into the cabinet.

A freshly killed mouse found inside a 155-year-old mousetrap has left museum curators baffled. It was discovered yesterday after being caught in the unbaited Victorian trap on display behind impenetrable glass

HOW DOES THE TRAP WORK? The most common type of mousetrap today uses a powerful spring to trap and kill a mouse. It’s effective but has a major drawback - it can only catch one mouse at a time. The idea behind the ‘Perpetual Mouse Trap’ was to create a system that could catch lots of mice, and be ready to do so at any time. It works by using a seesaw beam inside a box with several compartments. Bait placed inside the box is designed to tempt the mouse inside. Once it’s there, the mouse steps onto the beam making the seesaw tilt to the right. This traps the mouse as it has no way out. The mouse then goes through a one-way mouse-gate at the bottom of the device into a space behind the beam. The mouse-gate shuts so the mouse can't get out. Meanwhile the seesaw has moved back to its original position, ready to trap another rodent. Advertisement

‘Upon finding itself there it would have found the Promised Land; a mouse paradise laid before it full of straw, wood and textiles,’ the Museum of English Rural Life wrote in a recent blog post.

‘Then, out of thousands of objects, it chose for its home the very thing designed to kill it some 150 years ago: a mousetrap.’

The trap was manufactured by Colin Pullinger & Sons of Silsey, West Sussex and aptly sold under the promise that it ‘will last a lifetime’.

Researchers don’t know the exact date it was made, but the trap itself was patented in 1861 by Bognor-born Colin Pullinger.

The device is a multi-catch trap with a see-saw mechanism, known as a ‘Perpetual Mouse Trap’.

The idea behind the ‘Perpetual Mouse Trap’ was to create a system that could catch lots of mice, and be ready to do so at any time.

It works by using a seesaw beam inside a box with several compartments.

Bait placed inside the box is designed to tempt the mouse inside.

Once it’s there, the mouse steps onto the beam making the seesaw tilt to the right. This traps the mouse as it has no way back out.

According to an explanation by Inventricity.com, the mouse then goes through a one-way mouse-gate at the bottom of the device into a space behind the beam.

The mouse-gate shuts so the mouse can't get back out. Meanwhile the seesaw has moved back to its original position, ready to trap another rodent.

The unlucky rodent had managed to sneak past security, exterior doors and museum staff, and somehow clambered its way up into the cabinet. Then, out of thousands of objects, it chose for its home the very thing designed to kill it some 150 years ago: a mousetrap

The device is a multi-catch trap with a see-saw mechanism, known as a ‘Perpetual Mouse Trap’. The trap was manufactured by Colin Pullinger & Sons of Silsey, West Sussex and aptly sold under the promise that it ‘will last a lifetime’. Researchers don’t know the exact date it was made, but the trap itself was patented in 1861

Colin Pullinger’s mousetrap was hugely successful at the time.

In his advertising material, he claimed he had caught 28 mice in one trap in a single night, and that in 9 months a farmer had caught nearly 1,000 mice in one trap.

‘Pests are, of course, a perpetual menace in any museum,’ the museum curators said.

‘Our most vulnerable objects have always been cased – such as clothing and leather – the rest of our stored collection made of sturdier wood and metal was only fully glazed over last year.’

They suspect that the mouse may have snuck into the trap before this glazing, or otherwise managed to get in while construction work was underway.

‘This mouse managed to sign its own death warrant before it could do any more damage, the extent of which was only a nibbled label,’ the curators wrote.

‘For the moment, however, the mouse remains in the trap while we decide what to do with it,’ the researchers wrote.

‘One option is a dignified burial, another is to desiccate it or have it prepared to remain as a permanent feature of the mouse trap for our new displays.

‘We’ll let you know what we decide.’