Bow (weapon)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the projectile weapon bow. For the martial arts quarterstaff, see Bo (weapon).
A bow is ancient weapon that shoots arrows powered by the elasticity of the bow. It is used for hunting, sport (target shooting), and in historical times was a weapon of war.
The technique of using a bow is called archery. Someone who makes bows is known as a bowyer, and a fletcher makes arrows. Together with the atlatl and the sling, the bow was one of the first ranged weapons or hunting tools which used mechanical principles, instead of relying solely on strength and skill of its user.
Many bow designs have been used in different cultures and time periods. Common designs are: solid wood (the English longbow), laminated wood (Japanese and Sami bows), and horn-wood-sinew composite (Middle East, India, Mongols). In modern times, the recurve and compound bows dominate for sport and hunting practices. Newer materials include flexible plastics, fiberglass, and carbon fibers, leading to increases in range and projectile velocity.
Modern-day use of bows for hunting is a matter of controversy in some areas, but common and accepted in others. Modern hunters are often drawn to bow hunting because it generally requires more practice and skill than taking game with a firearm. While modern rifles allow hunters to shoot large game (such as deer or elk) at distances of 100 yards (metres) or more, archers usually take large game within 40 yards (metres) which requires the archer to stalk the game more closely without frightening it away. Bow hunting is also still practiced in traditional cultures worldwide.
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[edit] History
The bow seems to have been invented in the late Palaeolithic or early Mesolithic. The oldest indication for its use in Europe comes from the Stellmoor in the Ahrensburg valley north of Hamburg, Germany and date from the late Paleolithic Hamburgian culture (9000–8000 BC). The arrows were made of a pine and consisted of a mainshaft and a 15-20 centimetre (6-8 inches) long foreshaft with a flint point.
The usage of bows in warfare is described in the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata.
The oldest bows known so far come from the Holmegård swamp in Denmark. In the 1940s, two bows were found there. They are made of elm and have flat arms and a D-shaped midsection. The middle part is biconvex. The complete bow is 1.50 m (5 ft) long. Bows of Holmegaard-type were in use until the Bronze Age; the convexity of the midsection has decreased with time.
Mesolithic arrows have been found in England, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. They were often rather long (up to 120 cm [4 ft]) and made of hazel (Corylus avellana), wayfaring tree (Viburnum lantana) and chokecherry (Cornus alba). Some still have flint arrow-heads preserved; others have blunt wooden ends for hunting birds and small game. The ends show traces of fletching, which was fastened on with birch-tar.
Bows and arrows have been present in Egyptian culture since its predynastic origins. The nine bows symbolise the various peoples that had been ruled over by the pharaoh since Egypt was united.
Most Neolithic bows are made of yew. Ötzi the Iceman found in the Ötztaler Alps carried an unfinished yew longbow, with a bowstring of nettle or flax fibre.
In the Levant, arrow-shaft straighteners are known from the Natufian culture, ca. 12.800–10.300 BP) onwards. The Khiamian and PPN A shouldered Khiam-points are most certainly arrowheads.
Native Americans used longbows (especially on the east coast) and flatbows (especially on the west coast), often recurved, made from various hardwood species, such as hickory. Likewise, the Fenno-Ugrian nations in Eurasia have traditionally used ash, maple or elm flatbows. The bow was a late invention in the Americas.
The bow became the main weapon of war used in the Middle East by the Assyrians and Egyptians, whose warriors shot it from chariots to great effect. The Greeks and Romans did not find this technique useful. Advances in armor made the bow less effective and they both often campaigned in hilly or forest areas that were unsuited to chariots. The development of horse archers by the people of the Eurasian Steppe, brought the bow back to the fore. Using composite bows, Steppe peoples such as the Huns and Mongols became a dominant force.
In the Middle Ages, European powers made effective use of the longbow as a major weapon of war. It was an extremely effective weapon in battle and could penetrate armor from a considerable distance. The longbow however is a difficult weapon to master and requires years of training. A longbow which can pierce later mediaeval armour also requires a very strong man to draw it. In Medieval England and Wales, the longbow became a popular weapon and archery a popular pastime. When the quality of English archery began to decline in the 16th century, English monarchs went so far as to mandate by law longbow training for males of military age, and placed restrictions on other physical sports such as football and ninepins so that people would practice archery.
The development of gunpowder, muskets and the growing size of armies slowly led to the replacement of bows as weapons of war, causing them to be relegated to sport and hobby. See archery for the modern sport of shooting bows. Crossbows still see some use by special forces and assassins due to their comparative silence when compared with guns. Bows are found all over the world, except for Australia where the main projectile weapons were spears and boomerangs.
[edit] Types of bows
[edit] Composite bow
A composite bow is laminated from different materials to produce a bow. The Hun and Hungarian bows use horn on the belly and sinew on the back, often with a wooden core to provide a gluing surface. The bows are backed with sinew because it is very elastic. Sinew will also shrink and pull a bow into reflex. The horn on the belly was very strong in compression, and could handle a high draw weight without taking a set. These Hun style bows were often highly recurved and reflexed, giving a short bow the ability to store lots of energy and shoot nearly as fast as a much longer bow.
Modern composite bows use laminated wood, plastic, and fiberglass.
[edit] Hun bow
The Hun bow is an asymmetric, composite, reflex bow. It was invented in Central Asia and carried to Europe first by the Huns. Its asymmetric shape allowed the bow to be increased in size without restricting its use from the saddle of a horse. The lower part had to be shorter to facilitate movement across the back and neck of the horse, but the upper part was not so constrained and could be longer. The result was a stronger, longer-range bow than that of the Germanic tribes of Europe. Quite simply, the users of the Hun bow could shoot down their enemies before they could use their bows. The asymmetry, however, led to less accuracy, although this was offset to some extent by the fact that the weapon was a composite bow.
The respect that the Goths had of the Hun bow was transmitted orally for a millennium among Germanic tribes and comes down to us in the Scandinavian Hervarar saga. The Geatish king Gizur who commands the Goth forces taunts the Huns and says:
- Eigi gera Húnar oss felmtraða né hornbogar yðrir.
- We fear neither the Huns nor their hornbows.
[edit] Hungarian bow
The Hungarian bow, an improvement of the Hun bow for archers on foot, is a symmetric, composite reflex bow. It was invented in Central Asia.
It improved on the Hun bow by lengthening its lower part until both halves were of equal size. This symmetry increased both its range and accuracy. If the archer was using the Hungarian bow while mounted, he or she needed to stand up on the saddle, an action that was impossible until the invention of the stirrup. See also composite bow.
[edit] Korean bow
A Korean bow, or sukgung, is a small but very powerful horn-bamboo-sinew composite bow. Korean archers can hit a target with this weapon from a great distance. A sukgung can shoot up to 600 meters. Archery was practiced strongly in Korea and many young males would spend their free time practicing it in Silla. In one contest, a man shot an arrow a range of 1073 meters.
[edit] Mongol bow
The Mongol bow is the type most often referred to as the typical Asian recurve bow, made as a composite bow, from ibex or (more traditionally) water buffalo horn, sinew, birch wood and [[bark]. The principal technical difference used to distinguish a "Mongol bow" from a "Hungarian bow" is the presence of a string "bridge" or "run"—an attachment of horn or wood, used to hold the string a little further apart from the bow's limbs. This attachment has been said to aid the archer by either creating a mechanical advantage at the end of the draw or giving an extra "snap" and acceleration to the string after the release. It is an interesting fact that during the time of Chinggis Khan's conquests, the mongol bows did not have string bridges yet. These were a later adoption from the Manchurian ("Qing dynasty") bows of northwestern China.
The Mongolian tradition of archery is attested by an inscription on a stone stele that was found near Nerchinsk in Siberia: "While Chinggis Khan was holding an assembly of Mongolian dignitaries, after his conquest of Sartaul (East Turkestan), Esungge (the son of Genghis Khan's brother) shot a target at 335 alds (536 m)."
Another example is given in the historic novel "Khökh Sudar" written by Injinashi, the Mongolian philosopher, historian and writer: he describes the competition amongst all Mongolian civil military men in about 1194 -1195. Dzulgetii, a 16-year-old man from Dzurgen Aimag (province), and 4 other archers each hit the target three times from a distance of 500 bows (1 bow = at least 1 meter).
Until today, archery with traditional composite bows is part of the annual festival of the three virile sports (Wrestling, Horseriding, Archery), called "Naadam".
[edit] Perso-Parthian bow
The Perso-Parthian bow is a symmetric recurve composite bow made of ibex horn (or for low quality bows, ox horn); a variety of wood cores; gazelle, deer, or ox sinews; and usually hide glue. These bows are highly tensioned. The "arms" of the bow are supposed to cross each other. The finished bow is then covered by bark, fine leather, or in some cases shark skin and laminated to keep out moisture. Traditionally, ox tendons are considered inferior to wild game sinews since they have a higher fat content, leading to spoilage.
Perso-Parthian bows were in use as late as 1820s in Persia (ancient Iran). They were then replaced by muskets. Bow making technology improved, but the fundamentals remained the same for millenia.
Iranian people who migrated from Central Asia and Southern Europe and settled modern Iran, brought horse archery and improved composite bows to the Middle East. Aryan nomads such as Scythians, Sakas, and Sarmatians were skilled archers. Parthians, originally a Scythian tribe, were famed horse archers. Using Perso-Parthian bows, Parthians inflicted several devastating defeats on Romans. Battle of Carrhae is probably the first decisive victory of mounted archers armed with Perso-Parthian bows over heavy infantry.
[edit] Compound bow
A compound bow is a modern bow that has pulleys or cams at the end of each limb through which the bow string passes. As the bow is drawn, the pulleys or cams turn, which in turn increase the leverage of the bows' limbs and make the bow easier to draw. They are little affected by changes in temperature or humidity and will give high speed at a lower draw weight compared to the simple bow. Unlike traditional bows, compound bows are always made of aluminium and carbonfiber. They were first developed and patented by Holless Wilbur Allen in the USA in the 1960s and have become increasingly popular.
With a traditional bow, the leverage on the limbs decreases for each inch the bow is drawn. This means that the bow will become a little harder to pull each additional inch it is drawn past the 90 degrees limb/string angle. This is only a problem on bows that are only twice as long as ones' draw length and shorter. On release, the limbs slam home and the arrow is shot towards its target. Compound bows shoot faster because of the high mechanical advantage and the fact that the limbs only bend a little, reducing the amount of energy needed to return the limbs back to the un drawn position, this energy is instead imparted to the arrow. Also, with a compound bow sights are often utilized, such as with a gun, so a compound user is often more accurate than someone with a longbow. It is possible to design a compound bow in such a way that the force required to hold the arrow is lower by some 30 or 40% than the maximum force needed to draw the string. A maximum force point is passed as the string is pulled back.
There are mechanical advantages to using pulleys:
- The draw weight does not increase much as the bow is drawn enabling the archer to hold the bow fully drawn and take time to aim;
- The pulleys enable the archer to draw a bow with a much higher draw weight than they could manage with a conventional single stringed bow
[edit] Crossbow
The crossbow is a small bow attached to a wooden support and drawn towards a nut or pin. When a trigger is pressed, the pin or nut releases the bow string, firing the arrow. The crossbow required little effort to shoot, but early on took great strength to load, though this was solved by adding a windlass or crank. Another means of loading the crossbow was to use a small hook attached to the belt of the archer. The archer would then hold the crossbow still by slipping his foot into a foothold at the tip of the bow. He then pulled the bowstring back by placing the hook in the crossbow's string and standing up. This permitted the shooter to use his legs, instead of his arms, to pull back the string. This method was not long-lived in European land warfare, however, because the crossbow was soon after replaced by the musket.
The oldest remains of crossbows are found in East Asia and date back to 2000 BCE. Some crossbows are known as a bowgun. They launch stones or lead. This Chinese invention dates back to at least 300 BCE.
[edit] Arbalest
An arbalest is a large, powerful crossbow with a bow (prod) of steel, rather than of wood or horn/sinew composite. The Hussites were famous for their arbalest archers.
[edit] Ballista
A ballista is a torsion spring crossbow. Depending on size, it was used as a siege weapon or sniper weapon. It has a high degree of efficiency because of the low inertia of the torsion springs, but efficiency decreases if operated under humid conditions and needs permanent anointment. It was usually operated by one (the "Scorpion" ballista) to three men. It shoots large arrows or stones. Nowadays, ballista-bows have been constructed.
[edit] Longbow
Longbows were ideally made from yew, Italian yew being the best, but white woods elm, ash, hazel, and brazil (sp) were commonly used due to availability. A well made bow could shoot up to 300 yards (meters) using flight arrow. A longbow was often built to be as tall as the archer. The most famous example is the English longbow, made traditionally of yew when available and carried by English armies to great effect in the Hundred Years' War. At this time it was called the “war bow.” At close range, the longbow could be aimed directly at an individual target, and was capable of penetrating all but the very best plate armor of the time. In battle, an archer could loose (shoot) 3 arrows before the first arrow hit its target, creating the effect of a cloud of arrows in the sky, sometimes causing the enemy to panic. While modern and often faulty reconstructions have shown that contemporary crossbows may have had equal penetrating power, they were expensive and not widespread. At distance, groups of archers would loose mass volleys on a high, arching trajectory at enemy formations, making longbow shots in some respects more akin to light artillery of the modern era. The arrows used were very heavy, 1 ounce (28 grams) or more, with narrow heavy bodkins and thick arrows often made of ash. A 120-pound (55-kg) longbow shooting 1000-grain (65-gram) arrows had enough energy to pin an armored knight to his horse and out the other side at fairly close range.
This style of bow was used up until the time of the English Civil War but was replaced in many cases by the matchlock musket, mostly because of the years of training involved with archery, even though the longbow was capable of much higher rates of shooting--as many as 20 shots a minute, to the musket's 1 shot in 30 seconds. The longbow, in the hands of a skilled archer, was also undoubtedly far more accurate than early musketry and had much greater range. The musket, like the crossbow before it, could be effectively employed with relatively little training, and had the psychological advantages of producing fire, smoke and noise in abundance when it was fired.
Construction of a longbow begins with a stave of yew or another suitable wood. The stave is worked down a few growth rings on the back to ensure that the bow has some sapwood and mostly heartwood. White woods such as elm or ash need not be worked down a growthring, the sapwood in these woods are as strong as the heartwood. The stave is then tillered so the center of the bow is thicker than midlimb, and midlimb is thicker than the tips. Nocks are filed and the stave is braced low and rasped or planed more to train the bow to bend, eventually to full brace and then full draw, giving the bow a few extra pounds to make up for poundage lost when the bow is broken in. This process is known as tillering.
Yew sapwood is elastic in tension, yew heartwood is elastic in compression. This combination makes a hard hitting durable bow. Modern yew bows are often backed with a thin layer of rawhide to keep from splintering or breaking on the back, since yew is so expensive. Although the whitewoods will make an English longbow if specially treated, they are better suited to making flatbows. More information on this topic is available on the internet and in some books. The Traditional Bowyers' Bibles are a good place to start, as is Paul Comstocks' "The Bent Stick".
[edit] Flatbow
The flatbow is an unbacked bow made from wood, such as ash, hickory or oak. Its name is due to fact that the limbs are flat rather than crowned. The typical flatbow is made from a whitewood such as ash with limbs about 2 inches (5 cm) wide, tapering in the last outer third of the limbs to ½-inch (1 cm) nocks. It is often made about 66 inches (1.67 m) long and tillered elliptically, with good potential for high draw weights. This is a great design of bow because it allows anyone to make a bow with little expense because ash or elm is cheap, whereas yew and osage is very expensive.
[edit] Yumi
A yumi is a Japanese longbow used in the practice of kyudo (Japanese archery). Traditionally made from a composite of bamboo, wood and leather, yumi are of asymmetrical design, with the grip positioned at about one-third the distance from the lower tip. It is believed the asymmetric shape was designed for use on horseback, allowing the bow to be more easily moved from one side of the horse to the other.
Unlike most archery disciplines, the yumi was not drawn with fingers alone, but with a ridge on the thumb of the leather glove worn on the back hand. This meant that the weight of the draw or pull of the bow was not limited to the finger strength of the shooter. Instead, a more relaxed and holistic technique was developed and the yumi was drawn not just with the arm, but with the whole breath and being of the archer or kyudoka. The arrow was often nocked to the "wrong" side or far side of the bow to allow quicker setting of the arrow and the string was released not by relaxing the hand, but by altering the posture of the back hand wrist, allowing the string to slip over the ridge of the glove. (The thumb becomes part of a rigid frame with the wrist piece, effectively negating finger strength in the process of shooting.) A disadvantage that causes problems more for the female archers, if the glove or yugake is damaged and the thumb and wrist became excessively articulated, the archer may have to endure pain while drawing, or indeed be unable to draw their bow.
[edit] Related weapons
- Whip bow — an arrow or dart attached via a notch in its forward end to the knotted end of a cord attached at the other end to a flexible stick. The stick is used to 'whip' or slingshot the dart forward, and the knotted cord releases from the notch. Mainly a children's toy, this "bow" is described in The American Boy's Handy Book
- Atlatl — Spearthrower or woomera. Although the darts are often fletched, there is no bow or stored energy before firing. The atlatl relies instead on leverage.
[edit] References
- U. Stodiek/H. Paulsen, "Mit dem Pfeil, dem Bogen..." Techniken der steinzeitlichen Jagd.
(Oldenburg 1996).
- Gray, David (2002) Bows of the World. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-478-6
- (1992) The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 1. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-085-3
- (1992) The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 2. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-086-1
- (1994) The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 3. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-087-X
