The compound bow is actually a fairly recent invention. Many people take it for granted today, but this is a piece of equipment that was not invented until the year 1966. Answering the question of who is the inventor of the compound bow can be difficult, since there is never a case where one person has come up with something without any prior influences. All inventors are standing on the proverbial shoulders of giants. However, Holless Wilbur Allen, Jr. is credited with inventing the compound bow.
Holless Wilbur Allen, Jr. and the Compound Bow
It is not an exaggeration to say that Holless Wilbur Allen, Jr. is one of the most important figures in the history of modern archery. Compound bows are known for being significantly more powerful than their predecessors. Using roughly the same amount of force, people can expect more energy efficiency, more accuracy, and more of a mechanical advantage overall when they use the compound bow compared to the longbow or recurve bow.
Holless Wilbur Allen, Jr. was partly taking advantage of new trends in United States culture and technology. In the early 1960’s, more and more people were interested in bow hunting. There has been a strong backlash against hunting in the modern world. However, people in the 1960’s who were often interested in getting back to nature and simpler forms of living found something appealing about hunting in the wilderness, especially with bows instead of guns. In the midst of a culture of peace protests, guns had lost their luster, and bows were becoming more socially and culturally acceptable.
The design of Holless Wilbur Allen, Jr.’s original compound bow was based on a then-modern recurve bow. He sawed off the ends of that bow and supplemented the ends with pulleys. Holless Wilbur Allen, Jr. actually had to play around with the new design in order to get it right, but he managed to do so by 1966, at which point he applied for a patent. He received that patent in 1969. Tom Jennings was his bow maker, and the two of them managed to create the first line of compound bows. In the modern United States, the compound bow is still more popular than all other bow types a full fifty years later.
About Holless Wilbur Allen, Jr.
By today’s standards, Holless Wilbur Allen, Jr. was not especially well-educated. He had a high school education and he worked as a salesman before he started his own business making steel wire basket frames. Holless Wilbur Allen, Jr. is an example of a person who had a great deal of raw natural intelligence, since he was able to deconstruct and reconstruct complicated devices at an early age. Holless Wilbur Allen, Jr. was also a hunting and fishing enthusiast, so he was very much connected to the subcultures who were interested in bow hunting in the first place. Holless Wilbur Allen, Jr. is very much the prototypical entrepreneurial inventor who is good at improvising and thinking outside the box. He took the recurve bow and made it modern.
