BOW

, an offensive weapon made of wood, horn, steel, or other elastic matter, by which arrows are thrown with great force. This instrument was of very ancient and general use, and is still found among all savage nations who have not the use of fire arms, by which it has been superseded among us. There are two species of the Bow, the Long, and the Cross Bow.

The Long Bow is simply a bow, or a rod, with a string fastened to each end of it, to the middle of which the end of an arrow being applied, and then drawn by the hand, on suddenly quitting the hold, the bow returns by means of its elasticity, and impels the arrow from the string with great violence. The old English archers were famous for the long bow, by means of which they gained many victories in France and elsewhere.

The Cross Bow, called also arbalest or arbalet, is a bow strung and set in a shaft of wood, and furnished with a trigger; serving to throw bullets, darts, and large arrows, &c. The ancients had large machines for throwing many arrows at once, called arbalets, or balistæ.

The force of a bow may be calculated on this principle, that its spring, i. e. the power by which it restores itself to its natural position, is always proportional to the space or distance it is bent or removed from it.

Bow, a mathematical instrument formerly used at sea for taking the sun's altitude. It consisted of a large arch divided into 90 degrees, fixed on a staff, and furnished with three vanes, viz, a side vane, a sight vane, and a horizon vane.

Bow-Compass, an instrument for drawing arches of very large circles, for which the common compasses are too small. It consists of a beam of wood or brass, with three long screws that govern or bend a lath of wood or steel to any arch.