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Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is the construction of inexpensive fences, and it is also used as a security measure atop walls surrounding property.
Barbed Wire, Warfare, and Security. After its invention, barbed wire was widely used during wars, to protect people and property from unwanted intrusion. Military usage of barbed wire formally dates to 1888, when British military manuals first encouraged its use.
As they worked their way west, they sought to clear the land of its human and non-human inhabitants, and exert control over the dirt that remained. One of the most...
An Illinois cattleman by the name of Joseph Glidden invented modern barbed wire in 1874. Made of two strands of intertwined wire connected at regular intervals by fixed barbs of twisted metal points, it was originally intended to prevent livestock from escaping confinement.
Barbed wire was used to create the original Mexican-California border back in 1909. During World War II, the Nazis would use electrified barbed wire surrounding their extermination and concentration camps.
Richard Spencer, a New Mexican rancher, tells the story of barbed wire from the cowboy’s perspective, as well as displays an old cowboy trick to fixing fence. For more information on barbed wire, visit the American Cowboy Gallery.
Barbed wire’s singular purpose – to keep in and to keep out – was first put to use on the Great Plains of the American West in the late 19 th century to restrict cattle and, implicitly, to secure territory by expansionist settlers and demarcate possessions.
During World War I, barbed wire was used as a military weapon. It was a formidable barrier along the front, stretching from Switzerland to the English Channel. Even now, barbed wire is widely used to protect and safeguard military installations and to establish territorial boundaries.
The Development of Barbed Wire. Prior to 1863, several individuals created forms of fencing that could be considered as barbed wire. None of these creations ever reached the mass market. In 1863 by Michael Kelly developed a type of fence with points affixed to twisted strands of wire.
In 1874 Illinois farmers Joseph Farwell Glidden, Jacob Haish, and Isaac Ellwood almost simultaneously developed methods of attaching barbs to wire, a type of fencing that effectively kept cattle out of cropland.