Holless Wilbur Allen, a 2010 inductee to the Archery Hall of Fame and Museum, applied in 1966 for a patent for the first compound bow. But my oh my, these mechanical marvels have come far the past five decades. That is, it’s a piece of wood bent by a string.īy comparison, the compound bow remains in its infancy, celebrating its 54 th birthday in 2020. Yes, the longbow’s construction has advanced over the millennia, but its basics remain largely unchanged. Tracing their roots back tens of thousands of years, longbows are the great-grandfather of archery.
