APPROXIMATE

PRODUCTION FOR THE

See also:

• UNITED

UNITED  STATES Year . Tons barbed wire . Tons meshed field fencing . 1874 5 1875 300 1876 1,500 1877 7,000 1878 13,000 1879 25,000 188o 40,000 1890 125,000 1900 200,000 50,000 1907 250,000 425,000 Barbed wire is usually shipped to customers on wooden spools, each holding approximately too lb or 8o to loo rods . A hole is provided through the centre of the spool for inserting a bar, on which the reel can revolve for unwinding the wire as it is put up . After the wire is stretched in place, it is attached to the wooden posts by means of galvanized steel wire staples, ordinarily made from No . 9 wire . They are cut with a sharp, long, diagonal point and can be easily driven into the posts . On account of the rapid decay and destruction of wooden posts, steel posts have become popular, as also have reinforced concrete posts, which add materially to the durability of the fence . It is essential that barbed wire should be stretched with great care . For this purpose a suitable barbed wire stretcher is necessary . Barbed wire fencing is now manufactured in various patterns .

The

general process may be outlined briefly as follows:—The wire is made of soft Bessemer or Siemens-Martin steel, and is drawn in the wire mill in the usual way . Galvanizing is done by a continuous process . The coil of wire to be galvanized is placed on a reel . The first end of the wire is led longitudinally through an annealing medium—either red-hot lead or heated fire-brick tubes—of sufficient When once started, the operation of barbed wire making is continuous and rapid . The advantage of two strands is the automatic adjustment to changes of temperature . When heat expands the strands, the twist simply loosens without causing a sag, and when cold contracts them, the twist tightens, all without materially altering the relative lengths of the combined wires . A barbed wire machine produces from 2000 to 3000 lb of wire per day of ten hours . 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 high-ways . Others prohibit the use of barbed wire fencing to indicate the property line between different owners, unless both agree to its use . In some states the use of barbed wire is prohibited unless it has a top rail of lumber . Barbed wire is also employed in connexion with " obstacles " in field fortifications, especially in what are known as " high wire en-tanglements." Pointed stakes or " pickets," 4 ft. high, are planted in rows and secured by ordinary wire to holdfasts or pegs in the ground . Each picket is connected to all around it, top and bottom, by lengths of barbed wire .

In

England, where the use of barbed wire has also become common, the Barbed Wire Act 1893 enacted that, where there is on any land adjoining a highway within the county or district of a local authority, a fence which is made with barbed wire (i.e. any wire with spikes or jagged projections), or in which barbed wire has been placed, and where such barbed wire may probably be injurious to persons or animals lawfully using the highway, the local authority may require the occupier of the land to 'abate the nuisance by serving notice in writing upon him . If the occupier fails to do so within the specified time, the local authority may apply to a court of summary jurisdiction, and such court, if satisfied that the barbed wire is a nuisance, may by summary order direct the occupier to abate it, and on his failure to comply with the order within a reasonable time, the local authority may execute it and recover in a summary manner from the occupier the expenses incurred .