Barbed Wire

BARBED WIRE. This is a protective variety of fencing wire which is barbed at regular intervals of I2 to 6in. The ordi nary barbed wire of commerce consists of two or three line wires twisted together with a fairly long lay or pitch, the barbed wires being tightly inter-woven and clinched at right-angles to the strand.

In the United States, barbed wire for fencing was originally suggested to meet conditions existing in the western states, by reason of the large cattle-raising industry in sections where timber was scarce. Farmers set themselves to find a way by which wire could be used without being destroyed by the animals it was in tended to confine, and barbed wire not unnaturally suggested itself. So immediately did this device find favour with the farm ers of the United States, and, in fact all over the world, that the manufacture of wire was revolutionized.

The practical beginning of the industry, was in the patents is sued to Joseph F. Glidden of Dekalb, Ill., in 1874 for barbed fence wire, and during the same year, to Joseph F. Glidden and Phineas W. Vaughan, for a machine to manufacture it. These inventions were the foundation of the system of patents under which barbed wire has been protected and sold. In fact the commonest form of two-strand wire with barbs fastened to one wire only still goes by the name of "Glidden" brand.

The development of the barbed wire industry has been very much accelerated by the introduction of mild steel. Iron wire, while it was highly resistant to corrosion, also had very great limitations both with regard to its tensile strength and other physical properties, and also because wire drawn from common iron could only be produced in comparatively short lengths. For tunately, the qualities which puddled iron lacked were found in a high degree in steels manufactured by the open-hearth process.

Barbed and Meshed Wire.

The introduction of barbed wire met with some opposition both in the British Isles and America on humanitarian grounds, but ample and extended tests silenced this objection. Barbed wire is in wide use in the western states of America, although new types of meshed wire field fencing have been largely employed since 1899. Generally speaking, the use of barbed wire fencing in other countries has not been as exten sive as in the western United States. While it has been used on a comparatively large scale in Argentina and Australia, both these countries use a much larger quantity of plain wire fence, and in Argentina there is an important consumption of high-carbon oval fence wire of great strength, which apparently forms the only kind of fence that meets the conditions in a satisfactory manner.

Barbed wire is usually shipped to customers on spools made of either timber and sheet iron or wire, each holding approximately I I 2 lbs. or 600yds. in length. A hole is provided through the centre of the spool for inserting a bar, on which the reel can re volve for unwinding the wire as it is put up. A 'cwt. reel ready for shipment carries a handle attached to the centre of the reel for carrying purposes, whilst a pulling handle is attached to tha paying-out end of the reel so that the wire can be unrolled with out danger of coming into contact with the barbs. After the wire is stretched in place, it is attached to the wooden posts by means of steel wire staples, ordinarily made from No. 9 galvan ized wire.

Barbed wire fencing is now made in various patterns of which six kinds are shown (fig. I ). No. 1 is a hard high-tension line wire with barbs passing not only in between but around both No. 2 is a Glidden type, this being made from ordinary mild steel wire with a barb wrapped around one wire only. No. 3 is of the heavy 3-ply Glidden type; whilst No. 4 is of the heavy 2-ply Glidden type. No. 5 is the 2-ply type with barbs wrapped in be tween and around the two wires; whilst No. 6 is a heavier kind of the same type but with barbs spaced at twice the distance.

Manufacture.

The wire employed is made of soft Thomas or Siemens-Martin steel and is drawn in a wire mill. Annealing, cleaning and galvanizing of the wire are done by a continuous process. The coil of wire is placed on a reel. The first end of the wire is fed longitudinally through an annealing medium (either red hot lead or heated fire-brick tubes) of sufficient length to soften the wire. From the an nealing furnace, the wire is fed longitudinally through a bath of muriatic acid, which removes the scale, and from the acid, after washing, the wire passes through a fluxing tank and then on through a bath of spelter, which is heated about 3o degrees above melt ing point. After being cooled by water, the wire is wound on suitable take-up blocks into finished coils. From 3o to 6o wires are passing simultaneously in parallel lines through this continuous galvanizing apparatus. The galvanizing gives the wire a bright finish and protects it from corrosion. The barbing and twisting together of the two or three longitudinal strand wires is done by automatic machinery.

A brief description of the manufacture of 2- and 4-point Glid den wire is as follows :—Two coils of wire on reels are placed behind the machine, designed to form the main or strand wires of the fence. One of the main wires passes through the machine longitudinally. One or two coils of wire are placed on reels at either side of the machine for making 2- or 4-point wire respec tively. These wires are fed into the machine at right angles to the strand wire. At each movement of the feeding mechanism, when fabricating 2-point wire, one cross wire is fed forward. A diagonal cut forms a sharp point on the first end. The wire is again fed forward and instantly wrapped firmly around one strand wire and cut off so as to leave a sharp point on the incoming wire as before, while the bit of pointed wire cut off remains as a double pointed steel barb attached firmly to the strand wire. This wire armed with barbs at regular intervals passes on through a guide, where it is met by a second strand wire—a plain wire without barbs. The duplex strand wires are attached to a take-up reel, which is caused to revolve and take up the finished barbed wire simultaneously and in unison with the barbing machine. In this way the strand wires are loosely twisted into a 2-ply strand, armed with barbs projecting at right angles in every direction. A barbed wire machine, under the best possible conditions, will pro duce about 2,000lb. of finished wire per day of eight hours.

In England, where the use of barbed wire has also become common, the Barbed Wire act 1893 enacts that where on any land adjoining a highway barbed wire is used in such fashion as to be injurious to persons or animals, the local authority may re quire the occupier to abate the nuisance and on his failure to do so, may abate it themselves.

Barbed wire has come to be one of the most formidable defences that can be used in modern warfare, and in the World War of 1914-18 was used very extensively for entanglements and similar purposes. In some American states the use of barbed wire is regulated by law, but as a rule these laws apply to placing barbed wire on highways. (See WIRE.) (E. A. A.)