WEBVTT - Invention: Barbed Wire 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:09.720 Welcome to Invention, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:12.720 welcome to Invention. My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:17.240 Joe McCormick. And today we're gonna be talking about barbed wire, 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.520 which which for me, it's it's interesting to just think 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:24.240 about how varied our thoughts can be just basic word 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.840 association with barbed wire, because when when I just instantly 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.159 think of the word without a lot of prepping, you know, 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.519 of course I think of barbed wire barriers often. Uh. 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.279 In particular, I think about barbed wire that is uh 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.479 like in the woods, uh, you know, wrapped around old trees, 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:43.920 and the it kind of grow the tree has grown 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.240 around the barbed wire in this kind of grotesque way, 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.080 but also the the tree is kind of conquering the 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:53.400 barbed wire, So I think of that. I of course 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:57.560 think of metal fences, the tops of metal fences, particularly 0:00:57.600 --> 0:00:59.880 to keep people out of the industrial areas. You see 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:02.160 that a lot in the urban environment. And then of 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.440 course I think about its use and say hell raised 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.720 or horror films, you know, event Horizon, or of course 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:14.280 the violent stunts that you see perpetrated sometimes in professional wrestling. 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.240 I definitely assumed there was a pro wrestling angle that 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:19.920 led you to this topic. Yeah, well no, no, I 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.600 wouldn't say that that led me to the to the topic. 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.800 I'm not sure what exactly, you know, I can't remember 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:27.240 what made me think this would be a good one 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.200 to look into. Um. Probably, I mean, part of it 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.040 could be just the fact that there is barbed wire everywhere. 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.880 We we tend to not see it even as we 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:38.840 see it. And I mean part of that is just 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.600 the nature of say a barbed wire fence or or 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.400 or cyclone fencing. This topped with barbed wire, is that, 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:46.080 of course you can see through it, you can see 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:47.840 what's on the other side. To a certain extent, it 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:52.880 is it is almost invisible, but yet it is there, 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.920 and it is uh, you know, if you've stopped to 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:58.880 really think about it, it's it's quite an oppressive presence 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:03.520 to have in the world around to its peak hostile architecture. Yeah, 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:06.280 because you know, just to go a little deeper, um, 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.079 in terms of associating barbed wire with what it's been 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:12.200 used for, I mean, we we have to realize that 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.880 it's been used to divide up the natural world and 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:19.360 enforce artificial barriers to both wildlife and humans. It's been 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.320 used to enforce contested borders. It was used to create 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.520 the physical barriers of Nazi prisoner of war camps, and 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.320 most infamously of all the fences of concentration and death 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:34.640 camps during the Holocaust. It's used to enclose human prisoners, 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:37.640 and in all of its uses against humans and with 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.640 human populations, I mean, it carries with it the threat 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:44.160 of ripped and torn flesh. It doesn't just prevent you 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.440 from crossing. It threatens you. I mean it says not 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:49.120 just like I'm going to make it hard for you 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:50.960 to get past this point, but it says you will 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.000 get injured if you try to get past this point. 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.480 It will be difficult and or unpleasant. Uh, So you'd 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.720 better stay on your side of the fence, your side 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:01.960 of the barbed wire. Now all that is, you know, 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.880 kind of dark and grotesque and oppressive and so forth. Um, 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:07.320 but the entire episode is not necessarily going to be 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:12.200 as grim. Barbed wire has a pretty fascinating history, uh 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:14.440 in the United States and in Europe. And we'll get 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.560 into that even as we discuss its its uses and 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.200 and also some of the times and places where people 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:23.960 tried to make it a little more, a little tamer, 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.720 I guess, but generally barbed wire is still going to 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.440 be barbed wire, uh, no matter how you twist it. 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.880 So as usual, let's first talk about what came before 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.040 barbed wire. Okay, I figured this is a good place 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:40.120 to call out one of the main sources that we're 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.200 going to be referring to in this episode, which was 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:44.880 a good chapter on the history of barbed wire in 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.080 a book called The Devil's Rope, A Cultural History of 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:52.080 barbed Wire by Alan Krell, who is an associate professor 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:54.480 at the School of Art History and Art Education at 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.440 the University of New South Wales. And so a lot 0:03:57.480 --> 0:03:59.680 of this book is actually more in the kind of 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:03.160 art history realm is talking about symbolism and stuff. But 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:08.280 but he he works Jesus of Nazareth into the first chapter. Well, 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.040 it's interesting when you look at like the early days 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.760 of barbed wire, what was the closest precedent you might 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:19.320 find in the imagery around you for this twisted, thorny 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.200 strand of material. It was probably going to be like 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:24.960 the crown of thorns that you would see on Jesus's 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.520 head in medieval artwork. Yeah, yeah, so so it's really 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:33.000 is a natural um transformation to go from uh, from 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.279 a crown of thorns to potentially, you know, like crown 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.560 of barbed wire, which is the author points out, like 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.279 you see this kind of imagery thrown around even in 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.800 the early literature about barbed wire. So uh, for the 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.320 most part, we're talking about inventions and innovations of the 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:52.359 nineteenth century here. Prior to the nineteenth century, humans obviously 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:56.000 had a robust collection of barrier technologies up their sleeves. 0:04:56.480 --> 0:05:00.359 Wall infants technologies extend back to ancient time, and we 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:03.280 mentioned a lot of this in our previous invention episode 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:07.320 on walls. Among the earliest known defensive walls are the 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:12.480 ancient walls of Mesopotamia, specifically those constructed in the twenty 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:16.200 first century b c. E. By this by the Sumerian 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:20.240 rulers Shulgi and Shu sin Uh. And of course this 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:23.719 would refer to the earliest like territorial border wall we 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:25.960 can find evidence of now, Like if you're just talking 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:29.080 about defensive walls for like castles or towns or buildings, 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.680 that's much much older. That's going to go back many centuries. Yeah, 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:35.599 And as for fencing itself, and it is in the 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.920 construction of fences as opposed to full on walls. Uh, 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.680 The ancient history here is also murky and impossible to 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.360 nail down. I was looking at old fences in Archaeology 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:50.240 by Arnie Innarison, presented at the eighty fourth Annual Meeting 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:54.039 of the Society for American Archaeology, and the author points 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.080 out that fences are just a prominent feature of most 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.920 cultural landscapes and that they frequently play to land division 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.960 and on farm grazing management. So, you know, it stands 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:06.640 to reason that we can we can roughly, I guess, 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:09.480 think of fencing as a product of the agricultural revolution. 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.880 But on the other hand, nomadic herdsmen seemingly made use 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:16.159 of animal pins and essentially fences as well in their 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:21.360 temporary settlements. So it really goes back far in human history. 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.520 There is no you know, no individual person or culture 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:26.520 we can point to and say, hey, they came up 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.080 with fencing. Yeah, And I think when you go back 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:33.120 farther into history, most fencing is going to be for 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:37.240 the control of animals rather than for the control of humans. Yeah, 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.720 you're talking about just mild barriers to make managing your 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:45.680 your various domesticated animals a little easier, so let's fast 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.120 forward a bit all the way to nineteenth century see 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:54.159 America and Europe, but specifically America, because this is where 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:58.240 we encounter the the European settler's dream of manifest destiny, 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.320 the idea that here is the American frontier spread before us, 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:03.920 and it is it is ours for the taking by 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:07.000 divine right. And part of this, uh, this whole vision, 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:08.760 of course, is the idea that you just have these 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:13.520 these vast empty stretches of land. Right. Of course, in reality, 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:16.680 these lands were far from unoccupied. Uh. There were, of 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.760 course animals living there, as with any you know, any 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:24.000 of the continents, you have large megafauna that that required 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:26.400 large areas to roam around in. But you know, also 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.760 had native peoples that had lived here for at least 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.800 fifteen thousand years. But in spite of all that, you know, 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:36.720 it was decided that everybody was going to get a 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:40.600 chance to have a piece of this unclaimed frontier. So, 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.480 as Eleanor Commins outlined in a Brief History of barbed 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:48.200 Wire for Popular Science, Abraham Lincoln's Homestead Act of eighteen 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:51.320 sixty two opened it up for any American to claim 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:55.480 uh one sixty acres of public land per citizen. All 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:57.280 you had to do is go out there claimant. And 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.400 of course, what are you gonna do, Maybe throw a 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:01.880 fence around. And so the land was divided, the land 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:04.720 was worked and transformed. And if you're looking to keep 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:08.200 animals on your property uh and or keep other animals 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.000 off of it, it does pay to build some fences. 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.040 But while the American Frontier wasn't all empty planes and 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:16.720 you know barren, uh, you know, the Great American Desert 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:18.920 and so forth, there are still plenty of areas where 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.480 there is a lack of trees and wood. And therefore 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.720 it made traditional fences a difficult proposition. And it also 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.840 took you know more, It took longer than was comfortable 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.440 in many cases to gross a hedgerows to serve as 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:35.320 natural barriers. And so settlers begin to experiment with the 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.559 use of wire for fencing. And this makes sense, right 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.920 You use less wood uh and or depend on fewer 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:45.600 post trees this way. Plus, despite the weight metal, wire 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.440 travels rather well. Yeah, wire is a pretty natural solution here. 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.560 Wire fencing is less likely to be harmed by the weather. 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.319 It doesn't get blown down by high winds because it 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:57.920 doesn't have a flat side to catch the gales. It 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:00.480 doesn't get weighed down by snow in the terer, it 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.000 doesn't catch fire if it gets struck by lightning. Wire 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:07.080 fencing is kind of a perfect solution for the planes. Yeah, 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:09.679 and it you know, it doesn't last forever, but it 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:11.800 certainly stands the test of time. I mean, I feel 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:16.200 like a lot of my childhood involved encountering old wire 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:20.280 fences or barbed wire fences that no longer have any purpose. 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:22.800 They're just there in the woods or you know, and 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.320 they're just they have survived, while everything else is just 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.440 a ghost of of whatever settlement it was a part of. 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:31.960 It was one of my favorite kinds of things to 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:34.120 discover as a good kid. You know, I would roam 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.320 through the woods and you'd find like a half buried 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.559 old barbed wire fence. Yeah, it's like that, maybe a 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.600 sunken grave, and of course, you know, like a line 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:47.640 of of buttercups that still come up marking some walkway 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.480 to a lost house of some sort. But there is 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.240 a downside to wire fences, which is that they're not 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.760 super strong, especially if you know they might be strong 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:59.680 for a human to try to get through. But imagine 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:04.800 you are a bull or a bison. Yeah, large animals 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.360 like this, a cow, bison, a horse, they can simply 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:10.120 tear into it, make a mess of it, and maybe 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.319 get tangled up in it. But in the fence itself 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.959 would be reduced to shambles and would no longer serve 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:18.160 its purpose. And and of course, if you were at 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:20.880 all concerned about humans, you know, a wire fence like 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.280 this is not going to really be uh, you know, 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.200 any kind of an obstacle for humans either. So they 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:31.920 quickly realized what was lacking here. Spikes, right, passive weapons, 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:34.920 just just some static pokers to sit there and hurt 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:37.640 you if you if you press too hard. So an 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:42.760 American farmer and businessman named Joseph Glidden is often given 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.560 credit for the invention of barbed wire, and he does 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:48.160 play a very important role in the history of barbed wire, 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.439 But it looks like there were a number of inventions 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:54.960 of similar types of fencing material before Glidden swooped in. 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.680 So we really need to take a pretty large step 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.400 back before we get to Glidden. So we will get 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:02.640 to him in a bit. One of the first things 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.200 I thought we should mention since we're still sort of 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:08.240 in the what came before phase, is the idea of 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:13.440 live fencing or live fence. Specifically a species of plant 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:18.280 known as Maclura pomifera, commonly known as the osage orange 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.480 or the hedge apple tree. You ever seen a hedge apple? Oh? Yeah, yeah, 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:23.520 they're fun to kick down the road. Yeah. I never 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:25.400 tried to eat one. I wonder what they taste like. 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.640 I don't know. I never tried either. I bet they're nasty. 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:32.600 This was a thorny hedge plant that could be and 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.839 was used as a kind of natural barbed wire to 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.920 form boundaries and barriers, but it had many problems. You 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.800 could try to aligne your fields with osage orange, but 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.680 it was difficult to maintain. It required a lot of trimming, 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.439 like it can, you know, shoot out big branches all 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.040 over the place, and it in in Krell's words, quote 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:56.520 harbored noxious weeds. So the question is can you recreate 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:00.360 some of the desirable qualities of this thorn hedge through 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:05.360 industrial means or synthetic means. And despite the historical association 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.920 between barbed wire and the American ranch land frontier, it 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:13.160 seems that a number of French inventors preceded the Americans. 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.680 There were at least two French patents on barbed wire 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:20.160 that came before any patents in America, and then another 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.280 one that came before most patents in America. So let's 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:25.600 let's look at France for a second right now. Now. 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:28.240 I will point out though that the Krell doesn't seem 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.760 to think that there's necessarily any connection between the French 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.040 and the American inventions. They have came up come up 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:37.000 with these independently. So imagine it's one of those things 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:39.559 you can you can ultimately explain just in terms of, 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:42.920 you know, the material science reaching a point where people 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:47.480 could could innovate with it, or the demand whether there'd 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.600 be a situation where this suddenly appears useful. And what's 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:54.720 fascinating here is that the way that it's useful varies 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:58.960 pretty greatly from Europe to the America's that's right. So 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:02.040 in the year eighteen sixty there was a Frenchman named 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:07.040 Lance Eugene Grassain Batilon who acquired a patent for quote 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:11.040 grating of wire work for fences and other purposes. And 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.560 I've got an illustration for you to look at here, Robert, 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.959 but this consisted of quote, a system of twisted iron 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:22.800 employing a flat thin wire known commercially as ribbon iron, 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.240 that could be applied to everything that ought to be 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:30.840 enclosed or fenced. And this, Krell says, this would include 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:39.560 railing for parks, railroads, meadows, gardens, pavilions, and even trees. Like, God, 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:42.760 imagine that world, you know, it's just a barbed wire 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.319 fence for every tree. Yeah. Like, if it's not clear 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:48.800 already that the focus here is not so much on 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.680 wandering cattle but on people, yes, uh. And Krell says 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:56.520 that most historians have kind of ignored Grassain Batilon, but 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.880 his patent was the first to describe the common feature 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:04.480 of twisted wire with sharp projections. Grassian Battalon called these 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.880 projections bristling points, and Krell is careful to point out 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:12.560 that gb here didn't describe the material as something that 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:16.199 you would make fencing out of, but rather as something 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:19.080 that would be mounted on top of a normal fence 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.960 to make it harder to climb over, which is exactly 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.440 how we see barbed wire used at And of course 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:28.160 it's cousin razor wire used today, something you can put 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.280 at the very top of a non barbed fence like 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.560 you know, cyclone fencing, etcetera, to make it difficult to 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.200 climb over. Right, So you want to put fencing around 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.320 all the trees in your city or something, you put 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.640 this on top of the fence around all the trees. Beautiful. 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.440 But after this there were more frenchmen to follow with 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.040 ideas for barbed wire. There was another guy named Louis 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:51.600 Francois Janine who was awarded a patent in April eighteen 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:55.360 sixty five. So five years later, UH was awarded a 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.200 patent for barbed wire of a kind of different design. 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:02.160 Here the fence would consider list of double twisted wire 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:06.120 with diamond shaped barbs made out of flat pieces of 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:09.560 sheet metal. So this isn't uh, this isn't gonna be 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.840 a little like poker sticking out like thorns. This is 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:15.920 going to be more like sharp flat pieces of metal 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:18.640 embedded in the wire as it goes along, sort of 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.400 little diamond shaped blades. Yeah. Well, one of the really 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.920 interesting things to come out of researching this episode was 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:28.920 just that how many different types of barbed wire have 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.160 been devised? Hundreds? Yeah, it's it's it's amazing and We'll 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:34.200 get more into some of the variety as we go here. 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:36.160 I mean, I think there were hundreds, just between like 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:40.600 eighteen sixty seven and eighteen seventy four. Uh So, a 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.480 later patent was filed by a brick manufacturer from Brittany. 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.440 And not to be confusing, if you don't know, Brittany 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:51.200 is in western France, It's not in Britain. Uh Brittany 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.760 and Western France. And this guy was named Gilbert Gavellard. 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:57.960 This was granted in August eighteen sixty seven, and it 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:02.080 was for Gavellard's Brevede in Vineon, which describes a fence 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:06.560 composed of runt says, oh my, my French has failing me. 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:11.560 Here run says artificial, meaning artificial thorns. There would be 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.680 things that would be uh quote caught between three strands 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:20.440 of intertwined wire. Uh This brings to mind a description 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:25.480 that that Krell shares. He he He discusses the powerful 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:30.160 Washburn and Mowan Manufacturing company out of Massachusetts, which was 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.400 a big like a major producer of barbed wire and 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:35.880 of course a major marketer of barbed wire. They put 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:40.160 put out some some gloriously over the top descriptions of 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:43.320 of barbed wire the perfect fence, And one of the 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.680 quotes from the Perfect Fences quote, the steel barb is 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:50.160 nothing more than a thorn, the spur the animal instantly 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:55.119 retreats from and thereafter carefully avoids. Yeah, it is compared 0:16:55.200 --> 0:17:00.640 to a thorn. Again and again emphasis on the natural. Uh. 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:02.760 I was about to say the natural nature, the the 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.360 natural nous of the thorn. Michael Kelly of New York, 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:09.439 who received a patent for a barbed wire design on 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.800 February eleven, eight sixty eight, writes of his invention quote, 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:17.959 my invention relates to imparting defenses of wire a character 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.600 approximating to that of a thorn hedge. I prefer to 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:26.200 designate the fence so produced as a thorny fence. And 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:29.199 you know, you read these arguments, and what could be 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:34.280 more natural? You're not making something grossly artificial, um an industrial. No, 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:36.919 You're you're taking something that the world does naturally, that 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:41.960 vegetation does naturally, and just applying it a little more 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.440 towards your specific aim. Well, yeah, I wonder if grass 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:49.320 Saint Battalan was anticipating somebody like me who's horrified by 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.160 the idea of a barbed wire fence around every tree. 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.360 Because when he's talking about his proposal for tree guards, 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:00.000 he writes that they quote maybe of double ribbon wire, 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.960 which allows the addition of small wire points, and when 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:05.800 these ribbons are twisted together, the wire points bristle in 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:10.199 every direction and form spikes, imitating thorn branches. It's just 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.159 saying it's like another part of the tree. It's just 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.160 like a plant. Yeah, you can well imagine him today 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:19.439 saying naturally trees grow upward and uh and reach towards 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:23.440 the heavens. Why not also helped transmit wireless signals for 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.480 our telephones? What could be more natural? Uh huh. But 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.520 it's funny, I mean, and we're not even really brushing 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:34.199 the surface of all the different marketing materials and patents 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:38.560 and uh and advertisements and everything that described barbed wire 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.240 as a thorn, that they were obsessed with this idea 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:44.119 that it's just like a thorn bush, it's just like 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.919 a brier. And I wonder if I wonder where a 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:49.960 lot of these comparisons are coming from. I think some 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:54.120 of it must be coming from like trying to make 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:58.600 it seem more humane, more natural, less like some kind 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:03.439 of gross metal claw that's invading your environment, right, And 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.720 then some of the literature too, is really just pressing 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:11.080 just how cultured it is, how essential it is to 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:14.080 have fencing. The fencing is the thing that separates us 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:18.119 from the savages, of which you know, as um as 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:20.040 Krall points out, as just you know, steeped in the 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:24.560 language of of of of you know, European colonists. Yes, 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:29.119 And Krell also shows these advertisements from the time that 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:32.960 that sort of envisioned barbed wire as the demarcation line 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:36.080 of a kind of controlled arcadia where he where he 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.520 would depict people walking along lanes where they would be 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:43.560 surrounded by beautiful plants. And then also just like menageries 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:48.199 of animals all mixed together, like elephants and camels and 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:51.560 horses and dogs and stuff, all in the same pins, 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.120 but they're all separated from these lanes by this elegant 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:58.879 looking barbed wire. And and so it's like, I don't know, 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:04.719 it's it enforces this theme of like man versus beast 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:08.880 and humankind versus nature, and we contame it and put 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:12.040 it in the box and control it with these artificial 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:16.320 with these industrial thorns, these thorns of human ingenuity. Yeah, 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:18.840 there's one point where Krell is dealing with this, uh, 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:23.520 this illustration by one of the barbed wire um master's 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:26.400 uh there of a of a cow trying to eat 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:29.320 an apple, but is prevented from reaching that apple in 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:32.920 this you know, otherwise, you know, a pristine garden environment 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.679 by barbed wire fencing, which he compares then to the 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.080 garden of Eden and the and the you know, the 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:42.760 tree of knowledge of good and evil and so forth, 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:46.640 which which is maybe a bit of a stretch, but 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:48.920 but still I like, I like the argument if we 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:50.960 just had one of those tree guards in the garden, 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:54.680 there wouldn't have been a fall, right, Yeah, the fences 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:58.200 order and uh and in the opposite of order is chaos. Right, 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:00.439 So maybe we should take a quick break and then 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:03.879 we come back. We can explore the year that the 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:13.119 that the damn broke on the barbed wire flood. All right, 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:15.920 we're back. So, as we mentioned earlier, you had the 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:19.439 Homestead Act of eighteen sixty two that really opened up 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:23.240 the the American the Great American Desert. And it's in 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:25.480 the wake of this that we began to see this 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:29.280 this real uh, this real rush right right. It seems 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.280 that something happened around the year eighteen sixty seven, because 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:35.360 that's the year that a ton of barbed wire patents 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:37.639 began popping up in the United States. We mentioned that 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.600 the first patent was in France in eighteen sixty there 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.320 was another one in eighteen sixty five, and then in 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:47.760 eighteen sixty seven the American floodgates open. There were so 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:50.879 many barbed wire patents and designs that that popped up 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:54.120 between around eighteen sixty seven and running into the mid 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.480 eighteen seventies. And again we we mentioned earlier some of 0:21:57.480 --> 0:21:59.840 the demands that might have put pressure on this invention. 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:03.479 You've got the continued colonization of the western prairie lands, 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:06.639 the desire for farmers to keep animals in and or 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:09.480 keep animals out of their fields in a place where 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:12.639 lumber was scarce and the weather could easily damage a 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.639 solid wooden fence. Anyway, wire fencing was kind of this 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:18.960 perfect solution. And then the barbs. Meanwhile, we're there to 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.760 discourage animals from knocking down the wire fencing. So who 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:26.240 were some of these early American inventors of the industrial thorn. 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:29.679 There are honestly too many to name here, but just 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:32.680 to mention a few There was a guy named Alfonso 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:36.280 Dab of Elizabeth Port, New Jersey, and he got a 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:39.960 patent in April eighteen sixty seven for an improvement in 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:43.080 pickets for fences and walls. And this would be like 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:46.040