Francesco "Frank" John Mafera, Sr. (July 18, 1898 – February 13, 1956) was an American businessman and inventor notable for patenting the first method for weaving chain-link fencing.

[1] In 1930, Mafera filed an application for a "method of forming wire fence fabric", which was approved in 1931.

[4] While Mafera's contributions to the development of fencing were long overlooked, his industrial innovations have received more attention in recent years.

[5] Here, Frank and Guy were inspired by the bed's spring system and weaving to experiment with integrating these features into fencing.

Mafera was inspired by the way residents in cramped Boston neighborhoods stood spring beds up between houses to create a makeshift barrier.

[7] Around this time, Guy had opened the American Chain Link Fence Company on Ship Avenue[8] in Medford, Massachusetts.

[12] On February 10, 1956, Mafera and his wife died when their house caught fire in the middle of the night.

Mafera was not the inventor of chain-link fencing, but his method of weaving wire fabric in a way that "produced a closed, rounded configuration" helped eliminate "ragged or unsightly" twists or barbs, making it more appealing for residential use.