Frenchman Louis F. Jannin, working independently, had patented an almost identical wire in 1865. Their designs used a diamond-shape barb on two wires. But Kelly, after producing a million pounds of his 'Diamond Point', lost out due to faulty patent language."
John says Kelly patented other wire types, including his "Pin Wire," which today fetches a three-figure price for each 18-inch "stick." Other inventors - Judson, Jacob Haish, Rose, and Joseph Glidden - soon joined the fray and applied for patents. First made on modified coffee grinders (Glidden), grindstones and in home workshops (Kelly), barbed wire was soon produced on intricate machinery developed to greatly speed production.
But it was a pale forerunner of the product yet to come.
"Livestock raised behind pole corrals and on the open range tended to run through the slender strands of barbed wire as if nonexistent," John says.