In this video I visit Paris’ Musée des Arts et Métiers – The Museum of Arts and Crafts.  It’s really much more about Science and History with a fantastic collection of early scientific instruments, machine tools and so much more.

Behind the objects are amazing stories and I go into some of my favorites in this first of two episodes.

Usually barbed wire (aka the Devil’s Rope) is decried as what divided up the West and brought an end to the vast open prairies.  In at least one case, we can see how it brought people together.

Early telephone companies found connecting rural homesteads too expensive so the farmers took matters into their own hands and used barbed wire to connect telephone services into their houses.  This resulted in Party Line style connection where everyone could hear whoever was on the line.  This was bad when you needed to have a private conversation, but useful to spread news, weather reports or the price of crops.  Sometimes it just helped people be less lonely.

The details are in this fascinating article.