Around 1885 the Orvis company started marketing a glass device used
to catch minnows. Other than the glass wine bottle traps in Europe, this
was the first example of a glass minnow trap, certainly the first one in
America. The original design used a swing-away lid that clamped on to the
front opening of the jar. There were two types of lids used on these; a
9-hole lid like the example below, also used on the Hawco traps,
and a 6 or 7 hole lid, of which I don't have a good example. Later, probably in the 1930's (?) a screw-on lid was
used, but the basic design remained the same until it was discontinued
sometime in the 1960's. The Orvis design was sold to the Stream and Lake
Tackle Company in the 1970's and is still being made today, basically the
same.( See Stream and Lake Traps )
