Barbed wire is steel fencing wire built with sharp barbs or points spaced along its strands, used to build inexpensive fences and to bar passage over walls and open ground. The first United States patent for barbed wire was granted in 1867 to Lucien B. Smith of Kent, Ohio; the commercially dominant modern form, nicknamed The Winner, was patented in 1874 by Joseph F. Glidden of DeKalb, Illinois. Barbed wire became a defining feature of First World War trench warfare, strung in dense entanglements in front of trench lines by every combatant to stop infantry assaults and channel attacking troops into the killing zones of machine guns and artillery. Wire entanglements of this kind were broken open by the tank for the first time in 1916, and by the Allied breakthrough at Amiens on 8 August 1918 the tank had defeated barbed wire as a battlefield obstacle.
Facts
Weapon Class Introduced Year Weapon Class
Weapon Class (category) Connections
Used In
Source Barbed wire, Wikipedia
Sources
1. Barbed wire, Wikipedia
Warfare and law enforcement section
As a wire obstacle, it is a major feature of the fortifications in trench warfare.
Introduction section
The first patent in the United States for barbed wire was issued in 1867 to Lucien B. Smith of Kent, Ohio.
- Weapon class classified from the entity's own sourced description text.
- Introduced circa 1867 per the entity's own sourced description text; no pre-1900 weapon system remains in current active military service.
Used In: World War I, Wikipedia article text
During the First World War, screw pickets were used for the installation of wire obstacles; these were metal rods with eyelets for holding strands of wire, and a corkscrew-like end that could literally be screwed into the ground rather than hammered, so that wiring parties could work at night near
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.