Chain link fences?

[p51]

I have tried to find info on when chain link fences became common and how much so going into the WW2 era.
I can't find any period photos of them being used on Army bases during the war.
Anyone have any hard data either way?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Chain link fencing basically indistinguishable from that sold today was widely sold in the US by the 1910s. It was widely known as "cyclone fence," after the Cyclone Fence Company of Waukegan, Illinois, a subsidiary of U. S. Steel which sold "wire and iron fencing for Parks, Playgrounds, Schools, and all Municipal Property." Army camps aren't listed in the Cyclone company's ad in the 1930 Municipal Index, but that's not proof the fencing wasn't used at them.

Ordinary chicken wire was used at many Government facilities built in the 1930s and 1940s, ranging from CCC camps to relocation camps, more as a way of defining boundaries than of providing any kind of foolproof security.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I've always wondered about the term "chain link fence." There are no chain links. They don't resemble a chain in any way. They are made of heavy woven wire. Not a single link in the whole construction. This may be a petty complaint, but I'm a stickler for precise language.

 

[p51]

Thanks for the info, Lizzie, I knew I could count on you!
I wonder why I haven't found hardly any photos of this kind of fence being used in the 40s, especially since it goes back much further in history than that?

 

[Zombie_61]

I've always wondered about the term "chain link fence." There are no chain links. They don't resemble a chain in any way. They are made of heavy woven wire. Not a single link in the whole construction. This may be a petty complaint, but I'm a stickler for precise language.

Actually, the individual wires that comprise such a fence are linked by the way they're woven, and as such form a horizontal chain of sorts, so...

 

[MikeKardec]

My house, completed in 1940, and many other spots that were fenced off around that time here in LA, used a woven wire (tighter connections than our current chain link) that formed rectangles a bit smaller than 4X2. All the other fencing accessories, galvanized poles and the knobs atop them are identical to recent chain link materials. I think of "hog wire" as being roughly 4x4 squares and this was a bit like half width hog wire.