Advertisement for Silver Pine Healing Oil, c. 1880s
Conquest of the Great Plains was made possible in part by the invention of barbed wire, which could cheaply enclose wide areas, even where trees and wood were scarce. Inventor Joseph Glidden received a patent in 1874 for the most familiar form of barbed wire. His wire proved durable, and Glidden invented machinery to mass-produce it — while his business associates skillfully promoted the product to farmers in the West. By 1880, Glidden’s company sold 80 million pounds of barbed wire a year. This image shows, however, that the new “thorny fence” also had a downside. Other businessmen profited by healing the injuries that barbed wire caused to valuable animals. Picture Research Consultants & Archives.