Barb City Roasters

This small city, sixty miles west of Chicago, was located at the edge of the prairie, that vast treeless expanse where the need for fencing was most acute. In 1873 Joseph Glidden, Jacob Haish and Isaac Ellwood Visited the DeKalb County Fair. Here they Viewed an exhibit for a "wooden Strip with metallic points" His device was nothing more then a strip of wood armed with nail like spikes meant to be attached to a plain wire fence. 

Glidden, Haish and Ellwood soon began to think about improvements to Rose's crude invention and within two years each of the men had obtained his own patent. Joseph Glidden made his first barbed wire in the kitchen of his farmhouse, using a coffee mill to twist the barbs into shape. Working in his barn he then utilized a grindstone to twist two strands of wire together after placing the handmade barbs on one strand of the wire. After making several hundred feet of wire in this manner, he fenced his wife's vegetable garden to keep stray animals out.

Glidden applied for a patent in October 1873; however, it was not granted until November 24, 1874. Ellwood quickly recognized the superiority of Glidden's concept, and in July 1874 he purchased a one-half interest in Glidden's yet-to-be issued patent for $265.

DeKalb Folklore has it that it was Mrs Ellwood who saw the promise of Glidden's Wire.

Glidden and Ellwood soon formed a partnership called the Barb Fence Company and began the manufacture of barbed wire in DeKalb. In the year of 1874 only 10,000 lbs of barbed wire were produced, largely by hand. The following year the company built its first factory with a steam engine and machines to mechanize the barbing of the wire. Output rose dramatically and in 1875 more than 600,000 lbs were manufactured. In 1876 Glidden sold the remaining interest in his patent to Washburn & Moen Co., the largest U.S. wire manufacturer, for $60,000 plus royalty rights. Backed by ample capital, the barbed wire business soon began to assume gigantic proportions.

According to the DeKalb County Manufacturer, 2,840,000 lbs of barbed wire were produced in 1876, 12,863,00 lbs. in 1877, 26,655,00 lbs in 1878 and 50,337,000 lbs in 1879. To preserve their monopoly, Washburn, Moen, Isacc Ellwood & Company purchased the rights to many prior and subsequent patents related to barbed wire. Years of litigation followed between the holders of the Glidden patent and other patents over priority in the invention of the first practical barbed wire. In 1892, the United States Supreme Court awarded precedence to Joseph Glidden because of his original claim that the twisting of the two strands of wire holds the barbs in place. The Court declared: " In the law of patent, it is the last step that wins."

The BIG FOUR IN BARBED WIRE

JOSEPH GLIDDEN

JACOB HAISH 

ISAAC ELLWOOD

CHARLES WASHBURN 

In 1894, Joseph Glidden made a fortune inventing barbed wire in his kitchen by twisting two pieces of wire together with a coffee mill.

What will you come up with?