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N0KFQ > TODAY 27.10.15 15:15l 48 Lines 2170 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Oct 27
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Sent: 151027/1408Z 71406@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.64
1873
Joseph Glidden applies for a patent on his barbed wire design
On this day in 1873, a De Kalb, Illinois, farmer named Joseph
Glidden submits an application to the U.S. Patent Office for his
clever new design for a fencing wire with sharp barbs, an
invention that will forever change the face of the American West.
Glidden's was by no means the first barbed wire; he only came up
with his design after seeing an exhibit of Henry Rose's
single-stranded barbed wire at the De Kalb county fair. But
Glidden's design significantly improved on Rose's by using two
strands of wire twisted together to hold the barbed spur wires
firmly in place. Glidden's wire also soon proved to be well
suited to mass production techniques, and by 1880 more than 80
million pounds of inexpensive Glidden-style barbed wire was sold,
making it the most popular wire in the nation. Prairie and plains
farmers quickly discovered that Glidden's wire was the cheapest,
strongest, and most durable way to fence their property. As one
fan wrote, "it takes no room, exhausts no soil, shades no
vegetation, is proof against high winds, makes no snowdrifts, and
is both durable and cheap."
The effect of this simple invention on the life in the Great
Plains was huge. Since the plains were largely treeless, a farmer
who wanted to construct a fence had little choice but to buy
expensive and bulky wooden rails shipped by train and wagon from
distant forests. Without the alternative offered by cheap and
portable barbed wire, few farmers would have attempted to
homestead on the Great Plains, since they could not have afforded
to protect their farms from grazing herds of cattle and sheep.
Barbed wire also brought a speedy end to the era of the
open-range cattle industry. Within the course of just a few
years, many ranchers discovered that thousands of small
homesteaders were fencing over the open range where their cattle
had once freely roamed, and that the old technique of driving
cattle over miles of unfenced land to railheads in Dodge City or
Abilene was no longer possible.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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