being fastened to the wall of the barn.  And here, as in most things great and small in this world, woman furnished the motor power.  The strong arm of the good helpmeet, Mrs. Glidden, turned the grindstone that twisted the first wire that made the first Glidden barb fence that kept stock at bay in Illinois or the world.  Then followed a device for twisting and barbing, and the application of horse power.  Business expanded, and steam took the place of the horse, and inventive genius modified and improved the entire machinery, it being estimated that at least the sum of $1,000,000 has been expended in bringing the machinery for barb-wire making to its present state of perfection.

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At about the same time that Mr. Glidden was wrestling with his ideas and devices, Mr. I.L.  Ellwood was experimenting to accomplish a like result with a thin band of metal, the barbs cut and curved outward from the strip.  In the meantime Mr. Glidden had put up a few rods of his hand-made barb-wire along the roadside at his farm.  And here again the good genius of woman enters upon the scene.  One Sunday Mr. Ellwood and his wife were driving along this road and attracted by the wire fence stopped to examine it.  Mrs. Ellwood, much to the chagrin of her husband, remarked:  “This seems to me a better device than your own, don’t it to you?” It did not then, for the remark disappointed and angered him.  But it set him to thinking and before the next morning he was of the same opinion.  The two men meeting the next day it did not take long to compromise and unite.  Mr. Ellwood dropped his own plans and accepted a half interest in the Glidden patents, and assumed the management of the business end of the concern, in which position he developed ability and tact possessed by few business men in this country.

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The barb-wire fence met an unexpected and general demand.  We know of few things like it in the history of manufactures.  From this small beginning, scarce ten years ago more than fifty large establishments are now turning out this wire to meet an ever insatiate demand.  The establishment of I.L.  Ellwood (making the Glidden wire) at DeKalb is the most complete and extensive of them all.  The building is 800 feet in length, and is supplied with about 200 machines for twisting and barbing the wire.  It gives, when running full force, employment to about 400 men, and turns out a car-load of wire each hour for ten hours per day, on an average, though this amount is considerably increased at certain times of the year.  These figures, though not given us by Mr. Ellwood, we are satisfied do not overstate the production of this one factory.  The progress of the barb-wire industry of the whole country is shown by the following record of the past nine seasons.  In