Barbed Wire

Barbed wire is a type of steel fencing wire built with sharp points or edges spaced at intervals along its strands, used for inexpensive fencing and for security atop walls. Lucien B. Smith of Kent, Ohio received the first United States patent for barbed wire in 1867, and Joseph F. Glidden of DeKalb, Illinois patented the modern, widely adopted version in 1874 after refining earlier designs. Barbed wire is credited by historians with helping to settle the American West, making large-scale fencing affordable on the open range of the Great Plains and allowing farmers and ranchers to enclose land and protect crops and livestock without the need for large numbers of cowboys.