wer.
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.

* * * * *

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.

* * * * *

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 o