and life saving apparatus. The building will be the largest exposition building ever erected, except the one in London in 1862. The design adopted was the work of G.M. Jorgenson, of Meridian, Mississippi. There were ten competitors.

JOSEPH F. GLIDDEN.

The Barb-Wire Industry—Some Facts in its Early History not Generally Known—Its Growth.

Joseph Farwell Glidden, "the Father of the Barb-Wire Business" of this country, is now a hale and hearty man of seventy-one. He was born at Charleston, N.H. When about one year old the family came West, to Clarendon, Orleans county, New York, and engaged in farming. The young lad, besides mastering the usual branches taught in the common schools, gave some time to the higher mathematics and Latin, intending to take a college course, an idea that he finally abandoned. He taught in the district schools for a few terms. In 1842 he came to Illinois and purchased a quarter section of land a mile west of what is now the site of the pleasant and prosperous town of DeKalb. With the exception of three years his life since then has been passed upon this farm and at DeKalb. He has from time to time added to his homestead, his farm now embracing 800 acres. His land is under excellent cultivation, a considerable portion of it having been thoroughly tiled, and his farm buildings are first-class. Mr. Glidden has been twice married. Two children were born of the first union, both dying in infancy. By his second marriage he has one daughter, now the wife of a Chicago merchant.

JOSEPH FARWELL GLIDDEN.

Mr. Glidden has held several local offices of trust and honor and enjoys in a marked degree the esteem and confidence of the citizens of his neighborhood and county. The rapid accumulation of property of late years, through his barb-wire patents and business, gave him the means to gratify his feelings of public spirit, and in consequence the town of DeKalb has benefited greatly at his hands. Its leading hotel and many other buildings are the work of his enterprise. Mr. Glidden has never lost the simple manners of the farm. He is unostentatious, quiet, genial, and at his hotel makes everybody feel as much at home as though enjoying the hospitalities of his private house. His kindly, firm, and intelligent face is well shown in the accompanying portrait, though, as is usually the case, the hand of the artist has touched his features more lightly than has the hand of time.

Few names are now more widely known among the land holders of the country than that of Joseph F. Glidden, the unpretending gentleman whose life we have briefly sketched. It was his fortune to seize upon an idea, and push it to development, which has not only given him fame and fortune, but which has enriched many others and saved many millions of dollars to the farmers of America. He has not only founded a mammoth industry, but he has revolutionized an economic system of the world. By his ingenuity and perseverance the fencing system of a pastoral continent has been reduced to a minimum of expense and simplicity. Not that he individually has accomplished all this, but as the patentee of the first really successful barb-wire fence, he laid the solid foundation for it all.

The first application for a patent for the Glidden barb was filed October 27, 1873. For some weeks previous to this date Mr. Glidden had had in his mind the idea of a barb of wire twisted about the main wire of the fence, leaving two projecting points on opposite sides. He made some of these by hand with the aid of pinchers and hammer. He strung two wires between two trees and twisted them together with a stick placed between them. A pair of cutting nippers was the next addition to his "kit" of tools. His next means for twisting the two wires together was the grindstone—attaching one end of the wire to shaft and crank, the others 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.

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 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

1874 there were 10,000 lb made and sold.
1875 there were 600,000 lb made and sold.
1876 there were 2,840,000 lb made and sold.
1877 there were 12,863,000 lb made and sold.
1878 there were 26,655,000 lb made and sold.
1879 there were 50,337,000 lb made and sold.
1880 there were 80,500,000 lb made and sold.
1881 there were 120,000,000 lb made and sold.
1882 there were about 180,000,000 lb.

The record for 1883 is not yet made up, but will probably show a corresponding increase.

In 1876 Mr. Glidden disposed of his half interest in the concern of Glidden & Ellwood to the Washburn & Moen (wire) Manufacturing Company, of Massachusetts, receiving therefor $60,000 in cash and a royalty on the future goods manufactured, Mr. Ellwood retaining his interest. The new concern began the purchase of