Baling wire, otherwise known as farm wire or soft wire is a type of wire used in an agricultural setting and industrial setting for everything from mending fences to manually binding a rectangular bale of hay, straw, or cut grass. It is also used to band together condensed cardboard, textiles, aluminum and other materials that are processed in the recycling industry.
Baling wire is commonly used in many non-agricultural applications, usually in an informal, make-do manner. It is frequently referred to as one of the basic repair materials. Typical uses range from supporting loose mufflers to patching chain-link fences. Common phrases often include baling wire as an ad hoc, fix-anything material, alongside chewing gum, duct tape, and the cable tie.
In the United States, Australia, and around the world, baling wire was used in mechanical hay balers pulled behind a tractor. The balers used a wire twister that first cut then twisted the ends of the wire such that the bale kept its shape after the baler had pressed the hay into a tight rectangular bale. These hay balers were in common use up until the late 1980s. When the hay was fed to the stock the wire was cut and hung in bundles around the farm. Farmers used the soft wire for fixing almost everything you could think of on the farm. From old leather horse harness to pins to keep castellated nuts in place on the tractor. Even tiny screwdrivers were made by cutting a short length of wire and looping one end for grip. The other end was then flattened and shaped to make a screwdriver for specialized tasks like replacing the tiny screws in reading glasses.
Baling wire was a commonly-used product for many years before it was replaced by baling twine in the late 1970s.
Read more about Baling Wire: Etymology
Famous quotes containing the word wire:
“Constantly risking absurdity and death whenever he performs above the heads of his audience the poet like an acrobat climbs on rime to a high wire of his own making.”
—Lawrence Ferlinghetti (b. 1919)