Barbed wire was invented more than a century ago and has a rich history. The first barbed wire was patented in the United States in the second half of the 19th century, and although several barbed-wire patents were filed, Joseph Glidden is considered the inventor of barbed wire. He proposed the simplest and most practical design for mass production, a design that has changed very little to this day.
Barbed wire was invented in the United States for a very simple reason: during that period, the western states were being rapidly settled, and livestock owners needed an inexpensive and reliable building material for constructing cattle enclosures. Since timber – the typical material for such structures – was in short supply, alternatives had to be found. The solution came with the appearance of barbed wire.
Within just a few years, several prototypes of barbed wire were proposed. Some were difficult to manufacture, some caused serious injuries to livestock, and some lacked the required strength and efficiency. Finally, in 1874, Joseph Glidden patented his version of barbed wire. He continued to improve the design, as confirmed by multiple patents he received thereafter.
Barbed wire triggered a real boom in the livestock industry across the United States. Its use made it possible to build inexpensive, durable enclosures that had previously been impractical. This gave a powerful boost to livestock farming and simultaneously pushed cowboys as a profession to the brink of extinction – most western states became crisscrossed with fences made of barbed wire.
In the early 20th century, barbed wire caught the attention of the military, marking the beginning of its use as a fortification tool. Its peak military application came during World War I, when barbed wire was used extensively, transforming battlefield tactics and turning the war into a positional stalemate. During the First World War, front-line defenses consisted of barriers stretching for tens of kilometers and hundreds of meters in width. It was in this period that improvised concertina wire obstacles appeared – early versions of one of the most effective forms of wire barriers, still used today.
With the advent of heavy armored vehicles, the military significance of barbed wire began to decline, although it remained widely used during World War II. However, the primary use of barbed wire in the 20th century was not warfare – it was used to secure prisons and concentration camps. Because of this grim association, barbed wire became a symbol of the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century.
History did not stop there. In the mid-1930s, German engineer Horst Dannert invented and patented a new type of wire obstacle – the concertina wire barrier that bears his name. These barbed-wire barriers were successfully used by both the German and British armies throughout World War II and for decades afterward because of their exceptional effectiveness.
For more than a hundred years, the design of barbed wire remained largely unchanged, and even today it is produced almost exactly as envisioned by Joseph Glidden. However, technological development and growing security requirements led to the invention of a modern successor to traditional barbed wire – razor wire. This innovation, which appeared in the late 1960s, brought perimeter protection to a fundamentally new level. The use of a high-carbon steel core and sharp cutting blades dramatically increased the effectiveness of security barriers, which is why razor wire or Egoza razor wire continues to be used successfully today without any significant changes to its design. As a result, traditional barbed wire has largely given way to its modern counterpart.