Long before the advent of cctv security cameras, there were walls with barbed wires and broken pieces of glass bottles used as a means to prevent unwanted intruders from climbing over the brick fence to gain entry into a premises. This method of constructing a brick wall and then embedding the top with broken pieces of sharp glass is no longer in practice. In fact, it would be very difficult to find such walls anymore. Most for such walls have either been demolished or replaced.
This one could be one of the last walls in Taiping where the top is implanted with broken glass from bottles of different colours. How effective was this preventive security measure? I am not sure. But, I believe that it does have a deterring effect on the would-be intruder. Surely, they would choose an easier wall to scale rather than one with all these sharp broken glass at the top. This is especially so when the operation is to be done at night. Great care has to be taken so as not to get oneself cut due to carelessness. Gone were all those large houses with such broken glass-topped walls. Could be the modern masons no longer have the patient to break bottles and to place the broken pieces one at the time on the top of walls anymore. With modern technology available, such practice will be a thing of the past soon.
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