24 November: Barbed wire

On this date in 1874, Joseph F Glidden patented barbed wire. 10 things you might not know about barbed wire:

1. Although he’s credited with inventing barbed wire as we know it today, Glidden wasn’t the first to patent a vicious type of wire fence. It was a Lucien B. Smith of Ohio who first patented it in 1867. Glidden simply made improvements to it and patented a new improved version.
2. He wasn’t the only person trying to produce a fence with barbs. There were three others working on the same idea: Jacob Haish, Charles Francis Washburn, and Isaac L. Ellwood. Together, they were known as the “Big Four” in fencing production. Rose’s version was a wooden strip with wire sticking out of it. Glidden’s design eventually came out on top and became known as “The Winner”.
3. Why did people want such a product in the first place? To stop their cattle from escaping, mostly. Only later did it become used to keep other humans out of places by adding it to the top of a wall.
4. Before barbed wire was invented, farmers had to use thorny bushes to control their cattle, but the problem with that was you had to wait for them to grow and transplant them to where you wanted them.
5. The invention of a cheap wire fence that would do the same job as a thorn bush and simpler to erect, so no special skills were needed as long as you had fence posts and something to fix the barbed wire to them, meant more people could get into the animal husbandry business on a large scale. It was also the beginning of the end for cowboys, who were essentially made redundant as there was no longer any need for people to chase after stray cattle.
6. While it may be good for containing slow moving, grazing animals, who will simply back off as soon as they come into contact with the pointy bits, it’s less good for containing Horses, which might panic and injure themselves. It can also be a problem for birds and Bats, who might not be able to see the thin strands and can get caught up in it. Adding Rubber bands parallel to the wires is one solution. In Australia, more than 60 species of wild animal have been recorded as being injured or killed by barbed wire fences, so a wildlife friendly fencing project has been set up to address the problem.
7. Barbed wire is made from steel coated with Zinc or a zinc aluminium alloy.
8. It is sometimes known as bobbed wire or bob wire.
9. It was first used in warfare by Portuguese troops defending from African tribes during the Combat of Magul in 1895. The best known use, though, was to defend trenches during the first world war to stop enemy charges. It was cheap and easy to replace if it suffered bombardment from heavy weapons.
10. Since it is also used in prisons and concentration camps, barbed wire has become a symbol of oppression. Amnesty International include it in their logo.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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