|
| 1880 | 40,000 | |
| 1890 | 125,000 | |
| 1900 | 200,000 | 50,000 |
| 1907 | 250,000 | 425,000 |
+-------+-------------------+----------------------------+

Barbed wire is usually shipped to customers on wooden spools, each holding
approximately 100 lb or 80 to 100 rods. A hole is provided through the
centre of the spool for inserting a bar, on which the reel can revolve for
unwinding the wire as it is put up. After the wire is stretched in place,
it is attached to the wooden posts by means of galvanized steel wire
staples, ordinarily made from No. 9 wire. They are cut with a sharp, long,
diagonal point and can be easily driven into the posts. On account of the
rapid decay and destruction of wooden posts, steel posts have become
popular, as also have reinforced concrete posts, which add materially to
the durability of the fence. It is essential that barbed wire should be
stretched with great care. For this purpose a suitable barbed wire
stretcher is necessary.

Barbed wire fencing is now manufactured in various patterns. The general
process may be outlined briefly as follows:--The wire is made of soft
Bessemer or Siemens-Martin steel, and is drawn in the wire mill in the
usual way. Galvanizing is done by a continuous process. The coil of wire to
be galvanized is placed on a reel. The first end of the wire is led
longitudinally through an annealing medium--either red-hot lead or heated
fire-brick tubes--of sufficient length to soften the wire. From the
annealing furnace, the wire is fed longitudinally through a bath of
muriatic acid, which removes the scale, and from the acid, after a thorough
washing in water, the wire passes through a bath of spelter, heated
slightly above the melting point. After coming from the spelter and being
cooled by water, the wire is wound on suitable take-up blocks into finished
coils. From 30 to 60 wires are passing simultaneously in parallel lines
through this continuous galvanizing apparatus, thus insuring a large
output. The galvanizing gives the wire a bright finish and serves to
protect it from the corrosive action of the atmosphere. There is a
considerable demand for painted fencing, in the manufacture of which the
galvanizing is dispensed with, and the spools of finished barbed wire, as
they come from the barbing machine, are submerg