Barbed Wire

This post is for all of the city folk, who have never encountered a strand of piercing, stabbing barbs of twisted wire. May you never have to! Scroll down to enjoy a crossword puzzle activity to download.

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Andi yanked at the wire with all her might to give Riley the slack he needed to overlap the two cut ends. Even through the leather protection, Andi felt the pinprick of barbs. She moved her hands slightly to avoid the sharp points. Scratched and bloody hands would be the crowning humiliation of her appearance tonight. ~ Chapter 3, Courageous Love

“Pinprick” is too gentle a word to describe being jabbed by Barbed wire. It scratches worse than a cat’s claws—more like a cougar’s (mountain lion). Barbed wire comes in huge rolls that can weigh up to fifty pounds. If you lose control while handling this type of fencing, the wire will twang and snap and can even wrap itself around your body. It can dig deeply into your flesh. It pays to be careful when stringing barbed wire.

There’s a reason that Mrs. M can make some parts of Andi’s adventures seem real. She has been scratched and “bit” by this tricky wire. It jumps at you without warning and grabs your jeans. Rip! Scratch! Blood oozes. Ouch! Rusty barbed wire is the worst. Make sure you are up on your tetanus booster before clearing out old barbed wire (which is sometimes buried under old grass and dirt).

That is probably more than you wanted to hear about barbed wire. When Andi is pricked, Mrs. M winces. She can feel it. She and barbed wire are NOT friends. I bet you’ve never thought much about barbed wire. If you live in the country, you see it all the time but don’t pay it any mind. If you live in the city you don’t see it and don’t care anything about it.

But barbed wire was one of the more important inventions of the 1800s. Why? Why would anybody invent something so vicious to a person’s hands (even through leather gloves)?

Before the Civil War, the West was wide open. Livestock moved freely, with all ranchers’ cattle mingling. They were rounded up and separated a couple times a year. After the war, with more settlers moving west, ranchers needed to set boundaries. Other types of fencing were horribly expensive or not available (like the rock walls and hedges back East). Farmers in the Fresno area spent $4,000 ($75,000 in today’s dollars) on lumber to erect wooden fences to protect 2,500 acres of wheat from free-ranging livestock. A cheaper method to keep cattle contained was needed.

In the 1860s, Joseph Glidden wanted to invent a durable wire fence with fixed barbs (smooth wire fences did not keep the cattle contained). He and a friend used a grindstone to twist two wires together to hold sharp barbs in place. The invention was a hit, and the first patent was issued in 1867. One fan of this new fencing 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.”

He summed up barbed wire well. It is still the most popular wire fencing today. Cattle and other livestock respect it. Their thick hides prevent serious injury from brushing up against the barbs. Small farmers jumped for joy when they learned that an effective way to keep the big ranchers’ cattle out of their fields had been invented.

Barbed wire fence. Great for cattle. A no-no for horses!

It is not the best fencing for horses, however. They can be injured much more easily with barbed wire than cattle are, sometimes becoming entangled in a broken fence (from thrashing against the pain). In that rare case, there is little that can be done to extract the horse until it has exhausted itself. Humans can also be seriously injured while working with barbed wire. However, proper clothing and slow, careful movements can prevent the sharp, stinging “bites” of barbed wire. 

This is a close-up of a barb. A machine twists them into place at intervals along a length of wire fencing. This type of fencing is quite effective in keeping livestock enclosed. It is inexpensive and simple to put up. It only requires posts (wooden or metal), the barbed wire, and staples or wire attachments. In the 1800s, many posts were cut from young pine trees of the proper diameter. Today, T-posts are driven into the ground and the barbed wire attached easily with a special tool. Mrs. M has strung her share of barbed wire. It’s not hard, only tricky to avoid getting pricked.

Barbed Wire Crossword Puzzle

Click on the image to download and print out this crossword puzzle about barbed wire (PDF file). Answers to the puzzle can be found in this post.

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