Joseph Glidden patented barbed wire on November 24, 1874. It was one of the most important inventions in the settling of the West.
In 1873, Henry Rose was having trouble with a “breachy cow” so he invented a strip of wood with nails on it that he attached to his fence. It had metal points that would prick the cow if it tried to breach the fence. Later he improved the idea by attaching the boards to the fence instead of the cow. When he showed it off at the county fair, it got other inventors thinking of bettering it. Joseph Glidden use a hand-cranked coffee mill to twist two wires together and he added barbs to the wire. In the woodless Great Plains, it was a cheap solution to cattle trampling crops. Glidden received a patent in 1874. He sold 10,000 pounds of wire in 1874. In 1880, 80 million pounds were sold. Farmers loved it and cattlemen hated it because the open range was soon closed to cattle drives. Range wars erupted with cattlemen attempting to cut the wires and reopen the plains. Progress could not be stopped, however. Amazing 48-50 / Strange 203
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