the.com/barbed wire
the invention that fenced in the American West and ended the open range forever
means Twisted strands of wire studded with sharp points at intervals, used as a cheap, livestock-proof fence.
from A plain compound: "barb" comes through Old French from Latin "barba," meaning beard — the same root behind a fishhook's barb, the little point that bites and won't let go. So "barbed wire" is simply wire grown with thorns. The thing itself was an American invention of the 1870s, when several patents (most famously Joseph Glidden's) raced to perfect a wire that could hold cattle on the open, timber-poor plains — and the word stuck fast to the hardware.
- patent year
- Joseph Glidden patented his version in 1874
- nickname
- called the devil's rope by ranchers
- war use
- defined the trenches of World War I
- cheap power
- a few cents per yard tamed millions of acres
- museum
- Kansas has a barbed wire museum and hall of fame
the great fence — australian pastoral fence stretching 5,614 km to keep rabbits out, built 1880s
demilitarized zone korea — dmz fortified with barbed wire separating north and south korea since 1953
concentration camp perimeters — auschwitz and other nazi camps used electrified barbed wire fences, 1940s