Vermin Killer

[Tom Hughes]

I've got a modest collection of artifacts I've been digging at the old Perkins plantation here in the deep South. Each relic tells a unique piece of the story. Some artifacts are antebellum, some are postbellum.
I'll be doing my "show and tell" on different relics I've found every week. Hope you find it interesting.

The Vermin Killer
This is definitely a unique item because it was made on site at the plantation. It's been known by many names depending on its uses: Vermin killer, Signal gun, Trip alarm, etc.
It appears to be built to handle a .32 caliber cap and ball projectile. Although they could be purchased at a store or even ordered through the mail, I was unable to find a perfect match for my "gun" relic. After having it looked at, it was brought to my attention that it was indeed improvised and made by a blacksmith on site - probably used to control the population of rats, coons or possums.
The gun was tripped by a wire or string connecting to the trigger mechanism. It could be tied to trees, doors, windows, or anywhere that it was needed as long as it could be secured.
This was just one of those 19th century artifacts that shows ingenuity and necessary to keep the house free of pests as long as the barrel was pointed in the right direction!

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

Very interesting! Thank you for posting! I look forward to more!

 

[alan polk]

Very cool!

 

[Seduzal]

Thanks for sharing this awesome article. Never seen or heard this before! Another part of history found.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

@Tom Hughes you are living one of my dreams - digging for artifacts!

 

[Tom Hughes]

@Tom Hughes you are living one of my dreams - digging for artifacts!

Have you never been digging for artifacts? The best part is not knowing what the next relic your digging is going to be. It's the best hobby I've ever had. Do you live in New Hampshire? I bet lots of opportunities for Revolutionary War relics and early colonial.

 

[Tom Hughes]

Very interesting! Thank you for posting! I look forward to more!

My next relic from this plantation I'll post next week will probably be a neat presidential medallion I found.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

Have you never been digging for artifacts? The best part is not knowing what the next relic your digging is going to be. It's the best hobby I've ever had. Do you live in New Hampshire? I bet lots of opportunities for Revolutionary War relics and early colonial.

Well, we live in NH and we live in a 1774 house. My parents took 10 years restoring it because it was falling into itself. I've since inherited it. I have jars and jars of shards of pottery and once, about 10-years-ago in the spring, I looked out by the barn and there was a horse bit washed up from the ground just lying there! But I would honestly say all the pottery is mid-1800s and later. I do have one small cannon ball that washed up out of the ground in the spring about 30-years-ago. We are next to the original muster grounds for the town and on a sloping hillside. I've always hoped to find another one but never did. Colonial stuff was more organic - leather and wood and if it wasn't taken very good care of, it either wore out or rotted out. We did find ONE coin working on the sills of the house and it was dated 1874 but that's it for coins. The Yankee motto back then (and I suspect for most places really) was "make it do, use it up, or do without."

 

[alan polk]

Well, we live in NH and we live in a 1774 house. My parents took 10 years restoring it because it was falling into itself. I've since inherited it. I have jars and jars of shards of pottery and once, about 10-years-ago in the spring, I looked out by the barn and there was a horse bit washed up from the ground just lying there! But I would honestly say all the pottery is mid-1800s and later. I do have one small cannon ball that washed up out of the ground in the spring about 30-years-ago. We are next to the original muster grounds for the town and on a sloping hillside. I've always hoped to find another one but never did. Colonial stuff was more organic - leather and wood and if it wasn't taken very good care of, it either wore out or rotted out. We did find ONE coin working on the sills of the house and it was dated 1874 but that's it for coins. The Yankee motto back then (and I suspect for most places really) was "make it do, use it up, or do without."

Very neat! I don't see where you mentioned using a metal detector. If you have not got one, you ought to buy one and look around your place. I bet you'd be surprised by what you find. Living at a place like yours is already putting you leaps and bounds ahead of folks who have to get permission to hunt places like yours!

 

[Tom Hughes]

Sou

Well, we live in NH and we live in a 1774 house. My parents took 10 years restoring it because it was falling into itself. I've since inherited it. I have jars and jars of shards of pottery and once, about 10-years-ago in the spring, I looked out by the barn and there was a horse bit washed up from the ground just lying there! But I would honestly say all the pottery is mid-1800s and later. I do have one small cannon ball that washed up out of the ground in the spring about 30-years-ago. We are next to the original muster grounds for the town and on a sloping hillside. I've always hoped to find another one but never did. Colonial stuff was more organic - leather and wood and if it wasn't taken very good care of, it either wore out or rotted out. We did find ONE coin working on the sills of the house and it was dated 1874 but that's it for coins. The Yankee motto back then (and I suspect for most places really) was "make it do, use it up, or do without."

Sounds like you need to get a metal detector and search your yard real good. I guarantee you there has to be lots there to dig up.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

My daughter has a toy metal detector - it cost $60.00 - it's nothing like you guys use, but we could give it a quick whirl!

 

[alan polk]

My daughter has a toy metal detector - it cost $60.00 - it's nothing like you guys use, but we could give it a quick whirl!

I would. Practice with it. I bet it's one of those that differentiates by sound. I would put different things on the ground like a quarter, penny, an iron object, lead object, brass, etc. Spread them out on clean ground. Go over each object and listen to discover if it gives off different sounds for each metal. To begin with, when you actually hunt your property, you might want to avoid the iron signals and retrieve all the others from the ground.

 

[GwilymT]

That's one hell of a mousetrap!

 

[Tom Hughes]

My daughter has a toy metal detector - it cost $60.00 - it's nothing like you guys use, but we could give it a quick whirl!

Definitely. I'm anxious to hear back from you about finding something on your place. You mentioned that you have a few things that had just washed up so you see, not everything will be too deep to detect with a cheap machine. Let me know and good luck.

 

[Eleanor Rose]

@Tom Hughes , I had never heard of a vermin killer before. Thanks so much for starting this great thread. I look forward to seeing the next relic you share!

@NH Civil War Gal , get going with that metal detector! I'm curious to see what you find!

 

[16thVA]

I guess when they said "Hands up, you varmint" they really meant it.

 

[FarawayFriend]

I've got a modest collection of artifacts I've been digging at the old Perkins plantation here in the deep South. Each relic tells a unique piece of the story. Some artifacts are antebellum, some are postbellum.
I'll be doing my "show and tell" on different relics I've found every week. Hope you find it interesting.

The Vermin Killer
This is definitely a unique item because it was made on site at the plantation. It's been known by many names depending on its uses: Vermin killer, Signal gun, Trip alarm, etc.
It appears to be built to handle a .32 caliber cap and ball projectile. Although they could be purchased at a store or even ordered through the mail, I was unable to find a perfect match for my "gun" relic. After having it looked at, it was brought to my attention that it was indeed improvised and made by a blacksmith on site - probably used to control the population of rats, coons or possums.
The gun was tripped by a wire or string connecting to the trigger mechanism. It could be tied to trees, doors, windows, or anywhere that it was needed as long as it could be secured.
This was just one of those 19th century artifacts that shows ingenuity and necessary to keep the house free of pests as long as the barrel was pointed in the right direction!

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Well, that's the most elaborate mousetrap I have ever seen!!
Congrats to your find, awesome!!

As for relic hunting and metal detectors ... I got one for Christmas last year. I knew that probably I'd have to get permission to do use it on someone's property, but here it's much worse than that! I have learned that I must take part in a mandatory two day lecture about relic hunting in general, where I would learn where I may do it, what finds I may keep, what I have to give to my home state etc., but to enlist to one of these classes I must show up in person to a State authority and have me interviewed and checked if I am worthy of learning how to use my detector. These classes are fully booked until 2022. After the theory class I would have to take another one day course in handling my own detector (which is only once a year, so I can only vaguely imagine when I would be able to secure a place for me there!) so that I would not destroy any valuable artifacts while digging them up. I don't feel like jumping over all these bureaucratic obstacles, so there is no chance that I may lawfully use my detector.
I just hope that the coming summers will be hot and dry again, like last year's summer, so that the rivers dry up and parts of the river bed become accessible. Last year we found a very nice metal object, maybe even from Roman times, in the riverbed of the Rhine, plus some blades, pottery parts and horseshoes - and WWII ammo (which of course we did not touch!)

 

[alan polk]

Well, that's the most elaborate mousetrap I have ever seen!!
Congrats to your find, awesome!!

As for relic hunting and metal detectors ... I got one for Christmas last year. I knew that probably I'd have to get permission to do use it on someone's property, but here it's much worse than that! I have learned that I must take part in a mandatory two day lecture about relic hunting in general, where I would learn where I may do it, what finds I may keep, what I have to give to my home state etc., but to enlist to one of these classes I must show up in person to a State authority and have me interviewed and checked if I am worthy of learning how to use my detector. These classes are fully booked until 2022. After the theory class I would have to take another one day course in handling my own detector (which is only once a year, so I can only vaguely imagine when I would be able to secure a place for me there!) so that I would not destroy any valuable artifacts while digging them up. I don't feel like jumping over all these bureaucratic obstacles, so there is no chance that I may lawfully use my detector.
I just hope that the coming summers will be hot and dry again, like last year's summer, so that the rivers dry up and parts of the river bed become accessible. Last year we found a very nice metal object, maybe even from Roman times, in the riverbed of the Rhine, plus some blades, pottery parts and horseshoes - and WWII ammo (which of course we did not touch!)

Wow! That reminds me of the English television show called "The Detectorists." It was a funny show, but I thought all those regulations they discussed were just exaggerations. I guess not!

How in the world do the authorities enforce such rules? What's the penalty?

 

[FarawayFriend]

How in the world do the authorities enforce such rules? What's the penalty?

Well, Germany is a crowded little country with an extreme rich history and probably lots of artifacts still resting underground somewhere. Probably the authorities don't want it to be dug up completely… and as for the penalty, I had to look it up myself. I found that 1000,- Euros is minimum for illegal digging. If you worsen the situation by not properly handing in your finds, it may become more.
And for me as a state employee, it would result in a severe dent in my career if I was sued for some illegal action.

 

[JOHN42768]

A little bit of overkill