Just read that the first chain link fence patent was from 1844... in France

I was looking up some old fence types for a client's historic property and found this on a museum website. The patent was by a guy named Charles Barnard, and it was for a 'wire fence' made in a chain link style. It just seems so early, like before the Civil War early. I always figured chain link was a 1900s thing, maybe from some big factory here. Makes you wonder how they even made the wire back then. Has anyone else run into a really old fence style that made you stop and think?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_tessa8d ago

That's a cool find, but the patent date is actually wrong. The first real chain link fence patent in the US was in 1884, not 1844. It was by a guy named Charles Barnard, but he was American, not French. The 1844 date might be for a different kind of wire mesh. The machines to weave the fence like we know it just didn't exist before the late 1800s. It's easy to get those old dates mixed up on some websites lol.

alicelopez8d ago

Wait, does the exact patent year really matter that much? It's still an old fence either way (lol).