RE: [DL] Vulture Gulch Old West building

["Heivilin, Jim" <banzai@missouri.edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dane & Melody [mailto:melndane@cableone.net]
> Subject: Re: [DL] Vulture Gulch Old West building
> 
<snip>
> * fencing (more crude wood types & perhaps barbed wire);
> 
This started me wondering when barbed wire was invented (I've played
Imperialism and that's on the tech tree) and I poked around a little and
discovered (courtesy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica online) the following; 

===========
Barbed Wire

Fence wire usually consisting of two longitudinal wires twisted together to
form cable and having wire barbs wound around either or both of the cable
wires at regular intervals. The varieties of barbed wire are numerous, with
cables being single or double, round, half-round, or flat and having a range
of gauges. The twisted double cable provides extra strength and permits
contraction and expansion without breakage. Barbs are diagonally cut in
order to provide sharper points; they may consist of one or two pieces (two
or four points) and are generally spaced at intervals of 4 to 5 inches (10
to 13 cm). 


The first patents on barbed wire were taken out in the United States in
1867, but it was not until 1874, when Joseph Glidden of De Kalb, Ill.,
invented a practical machine for its manufacture, that the innovation became
widespread. By 1890, fenced pastureland had virtually replaced the open
range in the western United States. 
===========

So it had been invented before the Reckoning but wasn't manufactured in any
quantity until nearly that time.  Okay all you Mad Science types, what sorts
of ghost rock inspired machines can you come up with?  And how can barbed
wire be improved with ghost rock?

Jim H.