From Heritage New Zealand, Winter 2008

by Gavin O'Brien

There is more to the story of the Hayes Wire Strainer than Ernest Hayes ever intended anyone to know or believe.

Ernest Hayes, founder of Hayes Engineering, was undoubtedly an inventor possessed of both a strong creative insight and an astute entrepreneurial sense. However, widespread, common and persistent misinformation regarding the Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer has credited him with an invention for which he was not responsible, and for which he never claimed responsibility. Ironically, several of his earliest inventions seem to have escaped public attention, while myths surrounding the origins of the now iconic Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer appear to be at least as inventive as the device itself.

Ernest Hayes, founder of Hayes Engineering, was undoubtedly an inventor possessed of both a strong creative insight and an astute entrepreneurial sense. However, widespread, common and persistent misinformation regarding the Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer has credited him with an invention for which he was not responsible, and for which he never claimed responsibility. Ironically, several of his earliest inventions seem to have escaped public attention, while myths surrounding the origins of the now iconic Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer appear to be at least as inventive as the device itself.

Numerous examples of published information repeat the claim that Ernest Hayes invented the Triplex Permanent Wire Strainer. This device, however, was widely available in Otago for almost a decade before the establishment of Hayes Engineering in 1895, and the Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer (widely referred to as the Triplex Permanent Wire Strainer) was simply one of a number based on John Reid’s Triplex Permanent Wire Strainer of 1885.

There is considerable evidence that the production of the Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer began only after Ernest Hayes retired from the works in 1926. In considering some of the facts around the invention of the Triplex Permanent Wire Strainer, it is helpful to background a little of the technological context that prompted its invention.

Following its introduction during the late 1850s, wire fencing began to replace other forms, and by the 1880s this transformation had gained full momentum. Its introduction was not without problems, and a key obstacle lay in the ability to establish and maintain the correct tension of the wires.

This was of particular importance to farmers in regions of climatic extremes, such as the Maniototo, where Hayes farmed, and was a problem to which he devoted considerable attention. In winter, frosts could cause wires to snap, while the heat of summer would cause them to sag, and thereby diminish their effectiveness. A further problem lay in ensuring the galvanising of the wires was not ruptured during straining or construction, leaving the wire prone to rusting and eventual breaking.

During the last two decades of the 19th century, a large number of solutions emerged, and more than 80 patent applications for wire straining devices were lodged during the 1880s. Although many were based on marginal differences from existing devices, all were based upon one of two methods of straining: using either a portable or a permanent wire strainer. These two typologies remain the basis of straining wire fences today.

Portable wire strainers – sometimes also referred to as parallel wire strainers – enable two wires to be secured separately, then drawn together until the desired tension is achieved, along with enough overlap to enable them to be tied in a knot, after which the strainer is disengaged. Hayes’ celebrated Monkey brand wire strainer of 1905 is an example of this kind, its greatest virtue being that, unlike many of its competitors, it did not nick the galvanised coating of the wire.

In contrast to the portable wire strainer, the permanent wire strainer remains on the wire after tensioning, and commonly includes mechanical features that allow for further tensioning or release of tension as required. The Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer is an example of this kind.

Hayes’ earliest documented attempt to design a permanent wire strainer was made in 1894, the year before he founded Hayes Engineering. However, his automatic wire tightener seems to have remained almost unnoticed, and no examples of it appear to exist. Notice of “acceptance of complete specification” for this inventive device was published in the New Zealand Gazette of 25 October 1894, and in a lengthy letter to the Otago Witness of 1 November 1894 Hayes makes it clear that this strainer was designed to keep fence wires tight regardless of temperature changes: “When this machine is once set, there is no necessity to bother about fences getting slack or the breaking of wires by contraction. When the sun shines and the fence wires expand, this machine takes up the expansion. If it freezes and your wires contract, the tightener is equal to the occasion, and is compressed, slacking the wires to the required degree of tension at which the machine is first set.”

In proposing this device, Hayes also advocated the use of No. 11 wire over the widely favoured No. 8 used in the “old” method. One of the advantages of No. 8 wire was its ability to withstand changes of temperature without snapping. However, its inability to maintain a constant tension meant that  regular maintenance was necessary, and the automatic wire tightener was intended to solve this problem.

Hayes pointed out that, when used with No. 11 wire, it would also enable significant cost savings, both in labour and materials, since a roll of No. 11 wire was almost twice the length of the same size roll of No. 8, at approximately the same cost. This invention was soon followed by his more widely known  designs for a Lightning Poisoned Pollard Cutter in May of 1895, and a Lightning Pollard Poison Mixer in September of the same year. In June of the following year, his son Llewellyn (Llew), then aged 16, registered a patent application for a Lightning Pollard Poison Cutter, a variant of his father’s earlier design.

Ernest’s attempt to develop an automatic wire tightener seems to have been driven by a desire to improve upon a common shortcoming of the wide range of designs available at the time: the necessity of ongoing maintenance. The most commercially successful permanent wire strainer of the period was John Reid’s permanent wire strainer, known as Reid’s Triplex Wire Strainer.

Reid was the second son of Donald Reid, founder of the Dunedin stock and station agents Donald Reid and Company, and his permanent wire strainer was first advertised in a supplement to The Farmers Circular of 21 May 1885, along with another of his inventions, the Titan Portable Wire Strainer. Reid named his permanent wire strainer Triplex on account of its three essential components: the cast iron reel, the casing surrounding it, and the handle used for tightening it. They were manufactured by Bain & Sons of Edinburgh, and were an immediate and widespread success. By 1890, they had won first place awards at 20 consecutive agricultural and pastoral shows in New Zealand and Australia, and were copied by many imitators, notwithstanding the fact that Reid had taken out patents in New Zealand, Australia and United States.

The success of his design led to its becoming what could be regarded as a de facto industry standard, while the name “Triplex” became a generic term for this kind of strainer. It is inconceivable  that Hayes had no knowledge of Reid’s strainer and its derivatives, but it was only after Reid’s patents had expired that production of the Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer began.

Prior to this, Hayes had been continuously refining the design of his parallel wire strainer, and the company’s only new design for a permanent strainer was not registered until 1924. This was for a small, cast-iron “wire tensioner”, registered in the name of Llew Hayes on 24 May. Several of these curious, snail-like forms can still be seen on the fence line between the house and the workshops, although whether they were ever commercially produced is not known.

Archival records covering the period almost immediately following Ernest’s retirement in 1926 include a substantial volume of correspondence between Hayes Engineering (by now trading as E. Hayes and Sons), their patent attorneys and the patent attorney acting for Donald Reid & Co., Robert Wales.

In a letter to Donald Reid & Co. dated 10 May 1929, Wales advised that Hayes were within their rights to manufacture the “Triplex stretcher”, the patents for which had lapsed due to the “effluxation of time”, and these events are referred to in Emily Reid and Alfred Eccles’ history of Donald Reid & Co, published in 1939: “As is the way with inventions that have proved themselves, when the patent rights expired, local iron workers were quick to seize upon something in such good demand, particularly the Triplex, whose clever simplicity made it easy to copy, and to this day the Triplex is being privately manufactured and sold in Otago.”

It is important to point out, however, that neither Ernest Hayes nor the company of E. Hayes and Sons ever made any claim to inventing the Triplex, although the name was (legitimately) used in subsequent advertising.

A letter dated 6 November 1929, from E. Hayes and Sons to their Melbourne attorneys, definitively establishes the company’s role with respect to the authorship of the Triplex Wire Strainer: “A similar strainer was patented in New Zealand in 1888, so we cannot claim to be the actual inventors in New Zealand.” The signature on this letter is unclear but appears to be B. Hayes – Bernard, one of the Hayes brothers. Issues of authorship aside, perhaps the most remarkable feature of the Triplex Permanent Wire Strainer is that it is still in production, virtually unchanged in its operating principle since its inception almost 125 years ago, although current models are smaller, lighter and arguably more durable in their materials and constructions.

In February 2007, the agricultural equipment company Robertson Engineering Ltd of Lower Hutt secured the rights to trademark the name Triplex, which is now used on their Strainrite brand of permanent wire strainers, a product closely resembling the current version of the Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer.

Thanks to the staff of the Otago/Southland branch of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust for their assistance in researching this topic. Thanks also to Dr Noel Waite of Otago University’s Design Studies Department.