Barbed wire is composed of two zinc-coated steel strands twisted together with twisted barbs spaced regularly along them. The need for barbed wire arose in the 19th century as the American frontier moved westward into the Great Plains and traditional fence materials—wooden rails and stone—became scarce and expensive. Of the many early types of barbed wire, the type invented in Illinois in 1873 by Joseph F. Glidden proved most efficient and popular.
Joseph Glidden was born in 1813 in Clarendon, New York. In 1843, he moved to Illinois, and in 1851 married Lucinda Warne. From 1852 to 1872 Glidden held various city and county government positions, in addition to farming.
While attending a county fair in DeKalb, Illinois, Glidden watched a demonstration of a wooden rail with sharp nails protruding along its sides, hanging inside a smooth wire fence. The fence rail, patented earlier that year by Henry M. Rose, was designed to be attached to an existing fence to “prick” an animal when it came into contact with the rail, and thus keep livestock from breaking through.
This inspired him 1874 to invent and patent barbed wire in the form we know today. Glidden fashioned barbs on an improvised coffee bean grinder, placed them at intervals along a smooth wire, and twisted another wire around the first to hold the barbs in a fixed position.
There is a legend that Glidden’s wife encouraged him with his idea so she would have something effective to enclose her garden. Glidden experimented by bending a short wire around a long strand of straight wire, by modifying a coffee mill. Two pins on one side of the mill, one centered and the other just enough off center to allow a wire to fit in between. When the crank was turned, the pins twisted the wire to form a loop. The wire was then clipped off approximately one inch on each end at an angle to form a sharp point. Barbs were placed on one of two parallel strands of wire. The two strands of wire were attached to a hook on the side of an old grinding wheel. As the barbs were positioned, the wheel was turned, twisting the two strands of wire and locking the barbs in place.
During this time, Isaac Ellwood, a hardware merchant, had been unsuccessful in perfecting his own version of barbed wire. Glidden sold Isaac Ellwood half interest in his barbed wire patent for $265. When Joseph Glidden was awarded a patent on November 24, 1874 for his creation known as “The Winner,” he and Ellwood formed a partnership to establish The Barb Fence Company. In 1874 its first year in business the Barb Fence Company produced 10,000 lbs. of barbed wire. By 1875 they were producing more than 600,000 lbs. In 1876, Glidden sold his half interest to Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company of Worcester, Massachusetts. He received $60,000 plus royalties.
Glidden’s successful invention set off a creative frenzy that eventually produced over 570 barbed wire patents. It also set the stage for a three-year legal battle over the rights to these patents. When the legal battles were over, Joseph Glidden was declared the winner and the Father of Barbed Wire.
His invention made him extremely rich. By the time of his death in 1906, he was one of the richest men in America. The Dun and Bradstreet recorded his assets at one million dollars. This included the Glidden House Hotel, the DeKalb Chronicle, 3,000 acres of farmland in Illinois, 335,000 acres in Texas, and the Glidden Felt Pad Industry. He was also Vice-President of the DeKalb National Bank, Director of the North Western Railroad, and owner of the DeKalb Rolling Mill.
Glidden, a former teacher, gave 63 acres of his homestead as a site for the Northern Illinois Normal School. The school’s name was changed in 1957 to Northern Illinois University.
Glidden was neither the first nor the last to invent barbed wire. But, his was the most successful. It was an improvement on earlier less successful pointed wire products such as those invented in 1865 by Louis Jannin of France, 1868 by Michael Kelly of America and in 1873 by
Henry Rose of America.
Joseph Glidden’s wire fences were cheaper to erect than the others, and when Glidden’s barbed wire became widely available in the late 1800s, it became affordable to fence in much larger areas than before. Joseph Farwell Glidden’s simple invention forever changed the development of the American West.
Editor Phil Robertson is an award-wining journalist and graphic designer. With a degree from the University of Florida’s School of Journalism, his career in journalism and publishing spans over 30 years, and includes positions as editor and publisher for several newspapers and magazines. During his career he has received a first-place award for investigative journalism from
the Society of Newspaper Editors, and five ADDY awards for advertising design.
