"It was fearsome looking stuff, this barbed wire ...the barbs looked....like miniature daggers...”
Cameron Judd, Devil Wire
Barbed wire is unusual among inventions because it appears to have been created on several separate occasions at roughly the same time in history. Frenchman Leonce Eugene Grassin-Baledans made the first attempt in 1860, with twisted strands of sheet metal. Another Frenchman, Louis Jannin, came up with what would become known as barbed wire in 1865. In 1867 several Americans followed in hisfootsteps with different yet fairly ineffective designs, using single-stranded wire. The final contribution in this flurry of inventiveness came from American Joseph Glidden (1813-1906), whose 1874 patented wire machine created practical, cheap, mass-produced barbed wire, leading to its widespread adoption.
The reason for this simultaneous outbreak of ingenuity was due in part to a need for cheap fencing after the 1862 Homestead Act allowed any resident outside of the thirteen original American colonies to lay claim to up to 160 acres (67.4 ha) of land.
Barbed wire changed lives across the world. In America it created land barriers that had previously not existed, opening up the Wild West to more settled farming communities and cattle ranches. Elsewhere, barbed wire was adapted for use in warfare—initially in the Boer War and World War I—and it has become a powerful symbol of oppression and conflict throughout the world.
