A Brief History of the Bow
* Arrowheads have been found in Africa that date back as far as 25,000 to 50,000 B.C.
* Throughout the next few tens of thousands of years, humans had PLENTY of time to refine their techniques. Fire-hardening arrow heads, fletching arrow shafts to improve their flight characteristics, "tillering" bows so that the upper and lower limbs had the same bend radius, etc. All of these improvements helped increase the efficiency and accuracy of the bow and arrow, and helped humans to survive and advance throughout the ages.
* One major advance was the creation of composite bows. Around 2,800 B.C. people began blending different materials together to create better bows. The Egyptians of these times had long composite bows capable of shooting an arrow up to 400 yards!
* As you can see, the bow has been around a long while. It wasn't until recently, however, that the actual design of the bow itself was changed. In fact, this ingenious modification happened about forty years ago...
The Compound Bow
* On December 30th, 1969, Holless Wilbur Allen was granted the patent that would change archery forever.
* The invention of the compound bow was just the beginning. As with the invention of the original bow and arrow, time and ingenuity would take the basic concept to new heights. However, the modern understanding of physics, coupled with advanced materials and construction techniques, has greatly increased the pace at which advances are made.
* Using cams on one or both limbs of a bow allowed for an increased draw weight in the middle of the draw and a reduced weight at full draw. Archers firing traditional recurve bows encounter the highest resistance and draw weight at full draw. This means less time sighting in on a target before fatigue sets in, due to the strain of holding the bow at full draw. Compound bows, on the other hand, use a cam system which places the most resistance about 2/3 of the way through the drawstroke. At full draw, the compound bow reduces the tension in the bowstring by as much as 75-80%, allowing an archer to remain in position and more carefully sight in on a target.
At the time when humans were learning to use spears constructed out of sticks and stones and the
The people of the Eastern Woodlands made many tools to help them in their everyday lives. They made spears, weirs, nets, bows and arrows, lances, knives, taps, snares and deadfall for hunting. Most of those tools were made of wood or bark and other forest material. Arrowheads were made from chert, or flint, from sedimentary rocks. They were shaped like isosceles triangles, the smallest arrows were used for hunting birds, the bigger ones were to spear bears or deer. Flint knives were often oval, or teardrop shaped. For fishing they made spears, weirs, and nets. They also made canoes from hollowed-out trees to help with fishing in the lakes and streams. Some other tools they made were axes made of stone to strip bark, clear fields and removing fat from hides. Axes
and pulleys to bend the bow's limbs, which are usually much stiffer than those of
hunted with bows and arrows and as the years went on and how they trade with other tribes and
Crossbows are a highly effective weapon for hunting and war even in today's standards. The first records of crossbows are from China in the 6th century BC. The knowledge then spreads slowly to the west into Europe during the time of the Roman Empire, the greatest empire of all times. The crossbow remained the favored weapon of war and hunting in Rome until the 15th century when gunpowder was also introduced from China.
They also hunted small game with blowguns that were accurate from up to 60 feet
Before beginning about the history of ball bearing or bullet ball guns, which are referred to as BB guns in short, let’s take a quick peep at some of the most interesting facts about air guns:
The next real step in the evolution of the gun came during the Civil War. Rifles were invented that ...
Archery was not too tough of a technique to grasp; an archer possessed a bow with arrows, which were fired at their targets during battle. The heads of these arrows were said to have originated in Africa roughly 64,000 years ago (Wikipedia, History of Archery). Arrow shafts were made from pine wood and measured roughly eight inches in length, with grooves cut to fit against the bow's string. Compared to a Hoplite or the massive cavalries, archers seemed to be less effective given that they had a certain range needing to be pertained to, yet they were just as effective in battle as anyone else. With a good range, targets could be taken out to protect other soldiers on the field. While they were great with defending their comrades as little as they could, there was little else for an archer to do while in the battle. They were limited in that aspect, and had to keep far to be useful.
Long distance weapons were essential to European combat. The main long distance weapons used by Europeans during that time were the longbow and the crossbow. Each form of weaponry had its unique advantages and their pejorative. The long bow (shown in figure 1) was the original form of distance weapons. The term ‘bow’ means to be made from wood, iron or steel. The Welsh, who inhabited England, were the first people to use longbows. Longbows were 6-7 feet long and had a range of 250 yards, and still had the ability to pierce a knight’s armor (Byam 12). A well trained archer could shot 10- 12 arrows in a single minute. Despite these pro’s the longbow had a lot of disadvantages as well. One draw back was only skilled archers, who were costly to train, could use a longbow. Another disadvantage was it didn’t have a ready loaded arrow (Edge 34). The crossbow (shown in figure 2) on the other had been emphatically different. The crossbow had a span of 2-3 feet and could kill a knight on horseback with one shot, because of good aim (Byam 30). Crossbows had ready loaded projectiles, while the longbow didn’t and the crossbow could be used by anyone since it didn’t require any skill. The crossbow did have a down side though, it had slow reloaded because of a crank and it was expensive. Crossbows were also used for other thi...
The Upper Paleolithic Era occurred about 50,000 years ago and lasted nearly one-tenth of the more widely known Stone Age Era(Guisepi). During this time, Homo Sapiens were leaving the Middle Paleolithic Era, where advancements such as; points, arrows, darts, as well as other projectile tools originated, for the Upper Paleolithic Era. It is important to point out that during the Middle Paleolithic Era, the Homo Sapiens made large advancements in, “ the application of ‘prepared core technique.’” In this process, “a core was carefully flaked on one side so that for a flake of predetermined size and shape could be produced in a single blow(Middle)” By using this technique they gained knowledge of how to cre...
The first thing I would like to talk about would be the use of the longbow. The longbow was invented around 1180 C.E..According to fourriverscharter.org, it was built by a man named Celts in Wales. The
Complex technical studies in recent times have shown that one can split a wooden arrow with another, but that it will become stuck in the first shaft, seems nearly impossible. Nowadays, this would be an ‘honor’ more likely for archers who are using tubular shafts made of aluminum or carbon.
The bow and arrow dates back to thousands of years ago, it is estimated that they were found anywhere from 18,000BC to 25,000BC. They were used all over the world but the first arrowhead was discovered in Africa. There are many kinds of bows, the most common are the longbow and the recurve, there were many different styles created by several cultures during different times in history. In the Stone Ages, drawings discovered in caves illustrated many simple segment bows with many different shapes; flat, paddle-shaped bows were shot by Andaman Islanders. Some bows were made with wood like elm and yew, while others were made with many different materials like animal bones, horns and tendons; this was called the composite bow. The composite bow could either be made of wood and other materials or be made completely from different materials. In China, composite bows were comprised of newly harvested and dried bamboo. Scientists suggest that the bow originated from spear throwers and in between 18,000BC and 25,000BC fire was used to make stone arrowheads harder and feathers were added to make them more accurate.
Science and technology in the middle ages flourished because of the need of inventions to make life easier. In Europe, from the 5th century to the 16th century there was a radical change in the inventions made. It was between the fall of the Western Roman empire and the early modern era. This was a time for exploration in new ideas and ways of doing things. Europe invented many things for wars, time-keeping, and for everyday use. These inventions may be still used today. They range from huge mortar to a small set of eyeglasses. Europeans found that life was easier with new better inventions to help them in everything. There are a series of inventions about war because of nearby wars with neighboring civilizations or even within Europe.