Wouldn’t it be more economical to install it in straight lines? I am sure there is a good reason but searching for it turns up nothing.
In: Engineering
The basic gist is that people did initially deploy it in straight lines but in WWI the explosions and weapons and bombardments resulted in most of the wire becoming a tangled mess.
The surprising result is that people quickly learned that a tangled mess of barbed and/or razor wire is even better at stopping people than straight wire. So they they started coiling the wire during the war and eventually mass produced the product we now call “Concertina Wire”, which is like a death-slinky.
Yes, you’re right it’s more expensive (because you need more) than just straight wire but the goal isn’t to save money, it’s stop people from getting through your wire and the coiled wire is simply a really, really good deterrent.
Seems to me a straight line would be easier to defeat just by draping your jacket over it while you climb over. A loop makes an impenetrable mess.
Jump or climb a straight up fence…..no problem
Jump or climb a wide bush…..a problem
Add in the razors…..a bigger problem
It would be more economical in terms of using less barbed wire, but less efficient at keeping people in or out of the fenced area. If you’re going to spend 100 on straight barbed wire to protect an asset but it’s easy to climb over, then it would be worth spending 500 for loopy barbed wire to make sure the asset was significantly harder to get to.
Straight barbed wire acts more as a deterrent from climbing over, whereas looped wire is more of a guarantee it won’t be climbed over.
Straight lines is quite easy to climb over. But something like a thick jacket or a carpet over it and you can with relative ease get over it.
Lops extend out to away from the fence that made it hafer to cross, you can do that with straight wired in a Y shape too but less efficiently. Coils with multiple connected stands will not easily collapse and there is not a single straight line that can for example hold up a carper. So getting over them is harder
Any razor wire on a fence is to make climbing over it harder. If you just want to stop someone who is honest from going somewhere the should not by mistake the razor wire is not required
The coils don’t bear weight as well because they’re loose loops. If you climb it you’ll pull it in and get entangled.
They make them in huge coils. Like a slinky, you pull the top and it will unravel into loops. The loops are easier to catch tires or get wrapped up in tank tracks. If you ram the fence down and the razer wire was completely straight, you could just drive over it and likely make it through. If you ram a fence down and drive through the coiled razer, it will get wrapped up and likely immobilize whatever you’re driving.
The stuff that is coiled is called “Concertina Wire’.
The reason for it being coiled, is because when you want to pick it up and move it, it collapses flat into rolls.
If it were straight, then it would have to be rolled up on spools.
But because it’s coiled, you can take a section and just squish it back together, tie it up on 2 sides, and you’re good to throw it on the hood of your truck or the back of your tank turret… With far less cuts/uniform-rips/etc than trying to wind the stuff up.
It’s also faster to get it laid out, because you can just stretch it out, as opposed to having to unwind.
Tight barbed wire is easier to place your hands and feet to climb over
Loose barbed wire will shift as you try to move by it and catch. And will have enough spring to it to catch and pull
Because it’s floppy. It’s hard to cut, hard to cover to pass over (like you would with a straight wire – you can just put a blanket on top).
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