Barbed wire is steel wire with thornlike barbs at frequent intervals. It can be made of one wire or of two or more wires twisted together. It is used in fences, particularly for fencing in livestock.
When the American pioneers settled the prairies and plains, where wood was scarce, they planted shrubs to fence in their livestock. They used such shrubs as osage orange, which had thorns and grew thick enough to hold the animals. The invention of barbed wire was inspired by the thorned shrub. Joseph F. Glidden of De Kalb, Illinois, introduced the first commercially successful barbed wire in 1874. Cattle owners opposed the use of barbed wire because it enabled small farmers to fence in homesteads on government land. The cattle owners had been using this land for free pasturage. Barbed wire brought an end to the open range, and made possible the settlement of the frontier by small farmers.
