Editing Barbed wire (section)

== Uses ==

=== Agriculture ===
[[file:Barbed wire.jpg|thumb|Modern barbed wire]]

Barbed wire fences remain the standard fencing technology for enclosing [[cattle]] in most regions of the United States, but not all countries. The wire is aligned under tension between heavy, braced, fence posts (strainer posts) and then held at the correct height by being attached to wooden or [[steel fence post]]s, and/or with [[batten]]s in between.

The gaps between posts vary depending on type and terrain. On short fences in hilly country, steel posts may be placed every {{convert|3|m|yd|sigfig=1}}, while in flat terrain with long spans and relatively few stock they may be spaced up to {{convert|30|to|50|m|yd}} apart. Wooden posts are normally spaced at {{convert|10|m|yd}} on all terrain, with 4 or 5 battens in between. However, many farmers place posts {{convert|2|m|yd|sigfig=1}} apart as battens can bend, causing wires to close in on one another.

Barbed wire for agricultural fencing is typically available in two varieties: [[Annealing (metallurgy)|soft]] or mild-steel wire and high-[[Tensile strength|tensile]]. Both types are [[galvanized]] for longevity. High-tensile wire is made with thinner but higher-strength steel. Its greater strength makes fences longer lasting because it resists stretching and loosening better, coping with expansion and contraction caused by heat and animal pressure by stretching and relaxing within wider elastic limits. It also supports longer spans, but because of its [[Elasticity (physics)|elastic]] (springy) nature, it is harder to handle and somewhat dangerous for inexperienced fencers. Soft wire is much easier to work but is less durable and only suitable for short spans such as repairs and gates, where it is less likely to tangle.

In high soil-fertility areas where dairy cattle are used in great numbers, 5- or 7-wire fences are common as the main boundary and internal dividing fences. On sheep farms 7-wire fences are common with the second (from bottom) to fifth wire being plain wire. In New Zealand wire fences must provide passage for dogs since they are the main means of controlling and driving animals on farms.

Around the turn of the 20th century, in some rural areas, [[Barbed wire telephone lines|barbed wire fences were used for local telephone networks]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Apr 19, 1900 : Barb-Wire telephone line, Cassius Alley insulator |url=https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=5740 |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=reference.insulators.info}}</ref>

=== Warfare and law enforcement ===
[[file:Daily Mail Postcard - An attack - A wiring party going forward.jpg|thumb|left|A wiring party deploying entanglements during [[World War I]]]]

Barbed wire was used for the first time by Portuguese troops defending from African tribes during the Combat of Magul in 1895.<ref>{{Cite book | title=A Military History of Africa | first=Timothy J.  |last=Stapleton | isbn=9780313395703 | year=2013 | publisher=ANC-Clio | volume=2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XvtDAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA107 | page=107 }}</ref> Less well known is its extensive usage in the [[Russo-Japanese War]].

In 1899 barbed wire was also extensively used in the [[Boer War]], where it played a strategic role bringing spaces under control, at military outposts as well as to hold the captured Boer population in [[concentration camps]].

The government of the United States built its first international border fence from 1909 to 1911 along the California-Mexico border. It included barbed wire and was intended to keep cattle from moving between the two countries.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/raging-controversy-border-began-100-years-ago-180969343/ | title=The Raging Controversy at the Border Began with This Incident 100 Years Ago }}</ref> In 1924, the United States created its [[United States Border Patrol|border patrol]], which built more barbed wire fences on the Mexican border; this time to prevent people from crossing.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.businessinsider.com/us-mexico-border-history-photos-2017-4#in-this-1948-photo-two-armed-american-border-guards-deterred-a-group-of-undocumented-immigrants-from-crossing-a-river-into-the-us-5 | title=29 photos that show the US-Mexico border's evolution over 100 years | website=[[Business Insider]] }}</ref>

More significantly, barbed wire was used extensively by all participating combatants in [[World War I]] to prevent movement, with deadly consequences. Barbed wire entanglements were placed in front of trenches to prevent direct charges on men below, increasingly leading to greater use of more advanced weapons such as high-powered machine guns and grenades. A feature of these entanglements was that the barbs were much closer together, often forming a continuous sequence.{{sfnp|Netz|2004|page=108}}
Barbed wire could be exposed to heavy bombardments because it could be easily replaced, and its structure included so much open space that machine guns rarely destroyed enough of it to defeat its purpose. However, barbed wire was defeated by the [[tank]] in 1916, as shown by the Allied breakthrough at [[Battle of Amiens (1918)|Amiens]] through German lines on August 8, 1918.{{sfnp|Netz|2004|pages=124–127}}

One British writer described how the Germans used barbed wire as follows:  The enemy wire was always deep, thick, and securely staked with iron supports, which were either crossed like the letter X, or upright, with loops to take the wire and shaped at one end like corkscrews so as to screw into the ground.   The wire stood on these supports on a thick web, about four feet high and from thirty to forty feet across.   The wire used was generally as thick as sailor's marline stuff, or two twisted rope yarns.   It contained, as a rule, some sixteen barbs to the foot.  The wire used in front of our lines was generally galvanized, and remained grey after months of exposure.  The (German) wire, not being galvanized, rusted to a black color, and shows up black at a great distance.<ref>Masefield, John, "The Old Front Line'" The Macmillan Company, New York, Copyright 1917, pages 87-88.</ref>  

[[file:OkinawaJapanesePOW.jpg|thumb|Barbed wire and containment: [[Japanese prisoners of war in World War II|Japanese prisoner of war 1945]]]]

During the [[Great Depression]], migratory work camps in the United States used barbed wire.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-f92e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 | title=The barbed-wire enclosed camp for migratory workers at the Cannon &#91;Canning&#93; Company of Bridgeville, Delaware }}</ref>

In the 1930s and 1940s Europe the [[Nazis]] used barbed wire in [[Nazi concentration camp|concentration camp]] and [[extermination camp]] architecture, where it usually surrounded the camp and was electrified to prevent escape. Barbed wire served the purpose of keeping prisoners contained.

[[File:Auschwitz II Birkenau.jpg|thumb|Auschwitz fence in Poland]]Infirmaries in extermination camps like [[Auschwitz]] where prisoners were gassed or experimented on were often separated from other areas by electrified wire and were often braided with branches to prevent outsiders from knowing what was concealed behind their walls.<ref>{{harvnb|Razac|2003}}, p.&nbsp;89.</ref>

During the United States' World War II [[Internment of Japanese Americans]], barbed wire was used to enclose the concentration camps, such as [[Manzanar]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2017/05/journalism-behind-barbed-wire/ | title=Journalism, Behind Barbed Wire &#124; Library of Congress Blog | date=May 5, 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://digitalexhibits.wsulibs.wsu.edu/exhibits/show/immigration-impacts-in-the-pac/living-conditions-social-fun-c | title=Immigrant Life: Home, Community, and Social Aspects · Immigrants and the American West · Digital Exhibits }}</ref>

During the [[1968 Chicago riots]], barbed wire was attached to the fronts of police and [[National Guard (United States)|National Guard]] vehicles. The vehicles were used to drive into protesters and rioters and were nicknamed "Daly dozers" after then-Chicago mayor [[Richard J. Daley]].<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Love |first=Sarah Switzer |date=2001 |title=Blood sweat and gas: Print media and the 1968 Democratic National Convention |type=MA thesis |publisher=University of Montana |url=https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6101&context=etd |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200323174421/https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6101&context=etd |archive-date=2020-03-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2008-08-24-0808230182-story.html | title=1968: Whole world watched | website=[[Chicago Tribune]] | date=August 24, 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://vdoc.pub/documents/architectures-of-revolt-the-cinematic-city-circa-1968-53qb1co901l0 | title=Architectures of Revolt: The Cinematic City Circa 1968 &#91;PDF&#93; &#91;53qb1co901l0&#93; }}</ref>