Haish, Ellwood, Glidden barbed wire plaque

Barbed wire samples belonging to Kevin Haish

This barbed wire sample plaque has been owned by my dad, Kevin Haish, for almost forty years.

He purchased this plaque from the local Ace Hardware store in 1980 for a school project. The front features wire samples from Joseph Glidden, Jacob Haish and Isaac Ellwood, DeKalb's barbed wire barons. 

The back features text from Howard A. Nelson, who created the plaque:

"Each wire on the plaque is identified by the last name of the inventor and the year he received a patent for that wire. With over 600 patents granted for wire this display is obviously a small representation. It is impossible to tell when any barbed wire was manufactured because it depends on the quality, size and kind of metal used, the treatment given the wire such as paint or galvanizing and lastly where it was used. In areas with high rainfall and humidity, the life of a piece of metal exposed to the weather is relatively short, while in areas with low rainfall and dry atmosphere the life is considerably longer."

The backside of the display