Barbed wire
Alambre de púas
- Date
- 1874 · confidence high
- Place
- DeKalb, Illinois, United States
- Credited to
- Joseph Glidden
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Joseph Glidden patented a wire with twisted, fixed barbs, cheaper and more durable than wooden fences or hedgerows, after seeing a rudimentary design at an Illinois county fair. It made it cheap to fence the American Great Plains.
Lucien B. Smith obtained the first US patent for barbed wire in 1867. Henry B. Rose displayed a wooden strip with metal points at the DeKalb county fair in 1873, which inspired Glidden, Isaac Ellwood and Jacob Haish to compete to patent improved versions; Glidden won the patent dispute (granted 24 November 1874) and is recognised as the 'father' of modern barbed wire.
What it led to
- The fencing and privatisation of the American Great Plains
- The end of open-range cattle drives and rancher-farmer conflicts
- Industrial standardisation of wire manufacturing