Barbed Wire
A key weapon in the struggle to settle America's plains, barbed wire was patented in 1873. Years of armed range fights and lawsuits ensued as ranchers and farmers separated livestock and grain crops, ending open grazing and encouraging small-scale farming in the West. This fencing innovation consisted of two or more pieces of twisted wire bearing thorn-like barbs at regular intervals. Called "Devil's Rope" by Native Americans, it replaced more conventional and familiar types of fencing materials. Barbed wire provided a means of immediate enclosure, compared with slow-growing shrubs like the osage orange used to enclose land in the midwest, which tended to die during the droughts and high winds common to the plains. Likewise, the wire material was quicker, easier, and cheaper to install than was wood fencing, which often had to be imported from the east; it was more practical than rocks for stone walls, since these had to be shipped from the east or south and required great amounts of labor to install.
Barbed wire was also stronger than regular wire fencing, which frequently snapped during the plains' drastically changing temperatures, or broke when livestock leaned into it. Legendary and vicious "range wars," actually a series of small, unrelated fights, constitute a major chapter in the social history of the American plains. Before barbed wire was introduced, cattle roamed and grazed freely on the open range, then were driven to slaughterhouses once a year along well-established stock routes. Trouble arose when homesteading farmers enclosed their land, sometimes blocking well-traveled driving routes and access to water. Though most of the wire was probably painted black or bright red, many cattle ran into the newly installed barriers and were injured. Brief but violent fights ensued in Texas, Wyoming, New Mexico, and throughout the West, dividing the combatants into "fencemen" and " no-fencemen." Some of the fighting involved fence-cutters who were known to destroy miles of newly hung wire by cutting pieces from fences.
Henry M. Rose was the actual inventor of handmade barbed wire and demonstrated his creation at the 1873 county fair in DeKalb, Illinois. Friends and neighbors Joseph Farwell Glidden, Jacob Haish, and Isaac L. Ellwood all left the exhibit with ideas for improving Rose's brainchild. Glidden and Haish both submitted patent applications, Glidden in October 1873 and Haish in December. Glidden's improvement consisted of a means to hold the wire's barbs in place, an idea that has outlasted hundreds of other improvements and changes since then. After developing a machine to produce the wire in large quantities, Glidden asked hardware-store owner Ellwood to invest $265 in a partnership. The invention was an immediate success, and Glidden eventually sold his half-interest for more than $60,000 to the Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company of Worcester, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, building contractor and lumberman Haish designed and patented an S-shaped barbed wire. He proceeded to manufacture it, but Washburn and Moen bought Haish's patents and tried to monopolize the market. Haish fought the company for 18 years until the Supreme Court returned the rights to him in l892. He eventually realized a profit not only from the production of the wire itself, but also from building and leasing barbed wire-making machinery to other manufacturers, including Washburn and Moen.
Barbed wire was used during World War I to protect front lines from surprise infantry attacks, and today different types are sometimes used to safeguard construction sites, storage yards, and government outposts, as well as continuing to divide land in the western part of the United States. As a testimony to its utility, the Barbed Wire Museum at Canyon, Texas, displays over 200 specimens of the fencing material. Some people collect antique barbed wire as a symbol of our country's westward expansion.
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