Joseph Glidden tinkered with his wife's hairpin's to produce a barbed wire prototype. The production of barbed wire, after his 1873 patent, had a remarkable influence on the American expansion westward. Control of livestock was accomplished with strands of the inexpensive fencing. Agriculture flourished due to solid boundary lines enforced by this prickly sentry.

The simple strand changed the grazing patterns of wild herds that hand always moved freely. Additionally, the wire marked who owned what, and who could go where.

You and I live within boundary lines that may feel just as thorny.