Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Wired

Yikes!
Now, that's some serious barbed wire. A brief history of the barb follows. A story of it seems to go back to 1863, when a man named Michael Kelly ran some fencing with sturdy wire that he attached sharp points to. He thought a 'prick' to an animal would keep them in or out. Later in 1874 or so, Joseph Gliddens  got a patent for a type of wire fence that he called "The Winner" and along with a fellow farmer created the Barb Fence Company. Fast forward to WW1. Recently, son provided me with quite a lot of information that he gathered watching the History Channel on the importance of this little pricky wire. Soldiers ran it above and around trenches they had dug to prevent the enemy from getting close to them. They even carried it from place to place on the battle front and rolled it in the way of advancing troops. Getting their clothing and weapons stuck in the stuff must have been frustrating and surely added to the dangers and rigors of wartime infantry fighting. I guess, to some degree, you could say that lil' prick served its role in changing the course of history. Just a small prick...

19 comments:

  1. What we call in France "the killing detail" !

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  2. en france on trouve cela dans certain lycée ;( mais c'est souvent pour eviter que des personnes mal attentionnées rentre dans le lycée

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  3. Ouch...Aside from the the pain it can cause, I'm loving the lines & the shapes inbetween the wires.

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  4. ooooo....there's a joke there somewhere, but I'm not touching that one with a ten foot pole.

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  5. I think it can be dangerous! :)
    Unfortunately we live in a world that needs fences, but I like to imagine it without fences, a place where we are all safes!
    I like your picture a lot!
    Léia

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  6. Yes, it's a prickly world we live in, esp if one's around a ranch or farm.

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  7. I've met some people that I guess you could call pricks. Not sure if I'd rather run into them or the barbed wire!

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  8. there's a federal prison on my way towards dallas that has some of the finest razor wire coils that shine in the sun. yikes!

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  9. Interesting..! Love those WW I guys. I bet the plain old barb wire saved a lot of lives.

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  10. That's something I hate. Rather I hate a great many symbols associated with it...

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  11. You are rather wired today.

    Re your comment this morning: That's what the ladies of the evening are calling out as the walk the Riverwalk in front of the Tampa Bay Times Forum in which a certain convention is being held. :)

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  12. Interesting facts about its use in the war. I always hate getting it hooked on my clothes here on the farmette.

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  13. About your word play at the end . . . no comment.

    Speaking of the history channel, I just watched a piece on Antietam and then another on Einstein's shift from pacifism to atom-splitting and back again. All that brain power spent on way to shred humans wearing a different outfit . . . .

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  14. I love to trespass, but draw the line at something like this.

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  15. Next you should do research and a post on razor wire.

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  16. It's often the way that a little prick can be a pain in the ....!!

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