Bundanon wire

Barbed wire: first conceived in 1865 by Louis Jannin as fil de fer barbelé (barbed iron wire)

was reinvented in the US (1868) by Michael Kelly, the double-strand design made the fence

stronger, and the barbs kept cattle from pushing it over. It was patented in its familiar form

by Joseph Glidden (1884) to exclude wild animals from farm land. The widespread use of

barbed wire changed life on the Great Plains dramatically and permanently.

The Plains Indians were further dispossessed and called the wire 'the Devil's rope'.

Cattlemen excluded from their common grounds fought range wars against farmers.

A British military manual of 1888 recommended its use.

When concentration camps were being constructed, barbed wire fences

were the first structure built and the most vital.