Origins of the fly hunt

Frogs have tongues to catch and kill flies. Humans needed something external, a tool.

“Be it known that I, Robert R. Montgomery, of the city of Decatur, county of Macon, and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Fly-Killer,” claims U.S. Patent No. 640790See the patent on Google patent.

Montgomery is certainly right to state that he invented the modern type of fly swatter we can purchase today. However, he was not the first to construct a fly-killing device. Historically, the first fly swatters were simply pieces of string, horsehair or a “striking surface” attached to a stick.

Fast forward to the early 20th century where Montgomery was using wire-netting with elastic reinforcement for the “flap” and attaching it to the handle, even though this is not what the material was made for. This is most likely because he thought of the Fly-Killer before the “Age of Plastic” that started from the beginning of the 20th century onwards. He mostly focused on the netting, which aimed to reduce drag and create a “whiplike swing”. Unlike a rolled up newspaper, Montgomery’s fly swatter was advertised in Ladies’ Home Journal as a tool that “kills without crushing” and leaves surfaces clean.

So far we have been referring to this invention as a “swatter”, but technically the Fly-Killer model became known as a fly swatter only after Samuel Crumbine (then secretary of the Kansas Board of Health) got involvedWant to know more about the individuals involved in the evolution of the fly swatter? Check out this article.To ward off flyborne diseases, Crumbine named a report “Swat the Fly”, inspired by a tune he heard at a baseball game. Since then, the name has caught on, despite the fact that in reality he was influenced by another invention (the “Fly Bat”) which was just a screen attached to a yardstick he renamed the “Fly Swatter”. This new name - combined with Montgomery’s design and John L. Bennett’s improvements - helped normalize fly killing for health purposesFor more, see Soppelsa and Rodgers' "Origins of the fly swatter.". In 1910 the Boy Scouts of America ran a nationwide “Swat the Fly” campaign and Boy’s Life began encouraging young boys to sell fly swatters to their friends and family, advertising them as possible ways to make money and increase hygiene awareness.“Everybody is a customer; everybody will be swatting the fly; every home should have one in every room,” the ad read.