As with Victor Rat Trap No. 1, this machine is powered by one simple rat trap. A cord pulls the trap's spring back, and through an arrangement of pulleys, connects to a crank-wound gearbox on the right.

The gearbox's output shaft is connected to a central verge-and-foliot escapement, which consists of a special type of gear plus two paddles affixed to a vertical shaft. (A verge-and-foliot is a device originally used to regulate the movement of large, medieval cathedral clocks.)

On top of the vertical shaft are two brass arms with balls on each end. As the gear rotates, each tooth alternately engages each paddle, which causes the arms to oscillate back and forth. (The speed is largely determined by the length of the arm and the weight of the balls.) Due to the gearing, the two arms not only oscillate in different directions and amounts of rotation, a pleasing click-clack sound is also made.

Although it's a close call, fear not, our rodent friend escapes harm by a whisker!

All of the gears, shafts, and arms are made of brass.

While the gearbox base is made of cherry, the raised platform upon which the rat trap is mounted is oak. The support structure for the vertical shafts is walnut. The base is quarter-sawn sycamore, which has an interesting grain pattern.

The mouse is made of bronze, and the piece of cheese is made of boxwood.

Approximate Dimensions: 17" long x 7" deep x 11" high.

While this was a fun machine to build and design, I did encounter some difficulty in getting the verge-and-foliot escapement device to work properly.

It's usually the case that successive iterations of a particular design tend to get more complex rather than simpler, and Rat Trap No. 2 is no exception. Although still lighthearted, this machine is a slightly more serious woodworking piece than Rat Trap No. 1, for instead of using a plastic gearbox taken from a toy, I custom-built the gearbox myself.

I can now see why the verge-and-foliot type escapement became obsolete, for, unlike a quiet pendulum, it continuously slams its weighted arm back and forth, and was probably a high-wear item that had to be replaced quite often. However, I think it's more fun to watch a verge-and-foliot than a simple pendulum.