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USA 250 Series: Barbed Wire Manufacturing
In 1873 Joseph F. Glidden of DeKalb, Illinois, developed a practical design for barbed wire fencing. He twisted two strands of wire together and locked short, sharp barbs between them so the barbs stayed in place. Glidden filed his patent application on 27 October 1873 and received U.S. Patent 157,124 on 24 November 1874 for the improvement in wire fences.
Earlier inventors had patented barbed wire designs in the late 1860s, but those versions did not enter large-scale production. Glidden’s design proved easier to manufacture and more durable in the field. He partnered with Isaac Ellwood to form the Barb Fence Company, which began commercial production. By the late 1870s the wire was being sold in large quantities across the Midwest and Great Plains.
Barbed wire did not invent fencing. Wooden posts and rails, stone walls, and smooth wire had already been used. The new product offered a cheaper way to enclose large areas of open range where timber was scarce. This is Invention #015 in Automation History’s America 250 series. The entry treats Glidden’s barbed wire as a specific manufactured fencing product rather than the automatic origin of modern agricultural systems, with sources and the distinction between earlier patents and the 1874 commercial design noted. Free reading of this and the rest of the series is at Barbed Wire: Patents & American Manufacturing | America 250 — Automation History
