Why was the compound bow invented?

Answer 1

There are two parts to the answer of this:



(Part 1). In 1966, Holless Wilber Allen invented "Compound Bow" with triangular wheels / cams. He was then granted a patent right in 1969.


Only Holless Wilber Allen could answer this question from an inventor stand point.




(Part 2). The differences between a Compound Bow and a Traditional Bow, are the existence and the non-existence of the wheels / cams for the two bows, and the relative resultant size of the two designs, with compound bow being much shorter than a traditional bow.


The design of the compound bow introduced 2 new ways to how an arrow is shot, which could be viewed as an advantage or as an improvement in efficiency and effectiveness with weapon design. First, the smaller overall length of the compound bow allows a hunter to move around in the woods with the possibility of the bow catching onto plants and branches greatly reduced. Second, the existence of the wheels / cams requires maximum effort in pulling and minimal effort in holding & aiming stage allows a much longer and steadier hold time when compare with traditional bow shooting of the same draw weight, hence making shooting an much easier task with better accuracy (less shaking of the bow arm). The draw length and tension level of a compound bow feels exactly the opposite as how a traditional bow was pulled.


In other words, the design of the compound bow greatly reduce the human factors and uncertainty in Archery. The invention of mechanical release also suggest the same by taking away the possibility of string "plugging" when a compound bow was shot with finger release. There are many debates on whether the design of compound bow is taking away too many human physical elements out of the sport of archery. Compound archery is currently not one of the Olympic Archery shooting style.




Answer provided by: CUPID'S GATE ARCHERY - San Francisco & Marin County

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