Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1894 — FISH WITH A MIRROR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FISH WITH A MIRROR

AN APPARATUS FOR FOOLING THE FINNY TRIBE. Ihe Invention Alleges that by the Sight of Their Own Reflections the Gullible Fish WUI Fall Over Exch Other in a Scramble After the Bait. Perhaps It Won't Work. There are many devices for ensnaring the gullible fish. William R. Lamb of East Greenwich, R. 1.. has iuvented and patented a new one. The principle of Mr. Lamb’s Invention Is to cause the Ash to see himself In a mirror behind the bait, whereupon, imagining that the bait is to he snapped up by another fish, hastens to secure it himself, and the hook at the same time. At present there is no testimony as to the value of Mr. Lamb's invention in practice. The invention, according to the letters patent, comprises a mirror preferably of a circular or oval form, attached to a fish-line by means of a ring fast to the frame of the mirror. A horizontal arm extends a short

distance In front of the mirror, and has at its outer end a ring to receive a branch line, the upper end of which is fast to the main line. A hook is made fast to the end of the branch line, so as to come about opposite the center of the mirror. In using the apparatus a bait is put on the hook and let down in the water with the mirror, which acts as a sinker, until its lower edges touch the bottom. In this position the flsh, when approaching the bait, will see the reflection of himself in the mirror. He will imagine another hungry flsh after the same bait, and will be made bolder by the supposed companionship and more eager to take the bait before his competitor seizes it —at least this is tbe theory of the inventor. The flsh will Jose his caution and take the ba*t with a reck-

lessness that greatly Increases the chances of his being caught on the book. The reflection of light from the mirror in the water will have, in some degree, the effect that the light torch has in sonic well-known kinds of fishing, of attracting fish to the bait, and the light reflected by the mirror upon the bait will make it more conspicuous. The mirror may be made in two parts and secured together at an

angle, the one to the other so as to have the effect of making two or more reflections of the same fish, and it may be made double, so as to reflect on two sides. It may also be made in the form of a triangle or square, with a mirror on each side and an arm with the hook and bait before each reflecting surface, and in the form of a cross, which would produce a multiplicity of reflections. All this is the allegation of the inventor. >

THE MIRROR FISHING APPARATUS.