Geoff Holden asks:
 
>Why do I get all the hard ones? I have a query as to WHO invented the
>rural electric fence and WHEN. The standard reference books have failed me.
>If you know, please aid the impression that I have (retarded) omniscience!
>Rush to your keyboard and share your erudition...
 
I seem to remember someone mentioning a museum of barbed wire,
which could be a likely source. Patricia Nelson Limerick's
"The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American
West" (New York: Norton, 1987) has a
good bibliography that may point to something.
 
Robbin Murphy
Managing Editor, ArtNet
[log in to unmask]