American inventor Joseph Glidden worked out a tricky device aimed at making the local cattle-breeders happy. They were happy indeed: the barbed wire (product of crossing hedgehog with grass snake, as people joke) produced by machine became much cheaper. Soon, the wire produced in ample quantities webbed the Great Plains and eliminated cowboys on the way. What are they required for, if there is no escaping for the cattle? During the Boer War, the British found a new application for the barbed wire. They fenced off the railroads with it to protect them from the raids of Boer cavalry. During World War I, Glidden (type of barbed wire – technical specification 14-170-219-9 in the USSR) did away with cavalry as branch of armed forces and set to guarding people in concentration camps. Though Glidden would not mean anything bad.