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The History Of Supreme Mouse & Rat Traps
The history of “Supreme Rat Traps” and “Supreme Mouse Traps” started with the vision of one man, Arnold Wesley Standfield, born in 1901 in Kyogle N.S.W, Australia and passing in 1990 in Sydney, Australia.
Arnold Wesley Standfield, known as A.W. Standfield was the creator and founder of “A.W. Standfield and Co” and “Supreme” Mouse and Rat traps who dominated the market with Rat and Mouse traps for the entirety of his life. A.W. Standfield was very creative and a genius in his own right. He designed, built and assembled the famous Supreme Mouse Trap Machine and also later created the Supreme Rat Trap Machine. He achieved this monumental feat with no formal training or qualifications.
World War 2 Years
The Supreme Mouse Trap machine was made during WWII with scrap parts from various sources. Over the course of two years from 1942-1943 Mr Standfield built what was to be the first Mouse trap machine that would stay in operation his whole life producing over 100 million traps. This basic, yet complicated machine, only ever needed to be serviced and fixed as required, however when one part failed, the whole machine stopped working. This machine was purpose built and defined the Australian industry for over 60 years. The first traps were mass produced by the machine by the 7th January 1944.
The production of the Supreme Rat Traps and Supreme Mouse Traps started in A.W. Standfields garage at 19 Macintosh Street, Mascot, New South Wales in 1931. As production increased and he outgrew his garage the production moved to 113 Baxter Road Mascot where they continued to be produced until A.W. Standfields children Dave and Ron stopped production in the year 2000 when they decided to retire.
The first mouse trap A.W. Standfield ever saw as a child was made in Germany. Fascinated by this trap, he decided to build and design his own version that would be made in Australia for the entirety of his life. He immediately started building prototypes and in 1929 the first of the finished traps (as we know them today) were being produced by hand. This labour intensive exercise continue until the 7th of January 1944 when A.W. Standfield finally commissioned the machine that he made from scratch with scraps he would source from various locations. With this achievement came the ability to mass produce the traps.
A Family Run Business
After the commissioning of this machine A.W. Standfield started to grow his family business and before long he had employed his wife Sarah, two sons, Dave and Ron along with their sister Ruth and other loyal and reliable workers that were an extension to his beloved family.
Over many years A.W. Standfields sons Dave and Ron acquired the skills to operate and service the Supreme Mouse Trap and Supreme Rat Trap machines and learnt the day to day skills to run the family business. At later dates, with all of this information and knowledge, Ron and Dave went on to build their own, more automated versions of these Machines that also helped increase the production of the Supreme Rat Traps and Supreme Mouse Traps.
Ron and Dave took over the family business in 1990, on their first day they took a picture of their father operating the machine, framed it, and attached this picture to the machine.
In the year 2000, ten years after Mr Standfields passing, the machine was decommissioned and later donated to the power house museum for all to see with A.W. Standfields picture still attached to the machine along with the last trap ever made, in honour of a truly great man with vision, determination and the drive to create an iconic, All Australian Product. With this same vision, the same trap is being produced and sold today.
Some More Reading
Here are a couple of links to other sites that have more information about the history of the company.
Sydney Morning Herald Newspaper - 1984 Article
