Part 2 (2/2)
Mr. R. Hely-Hutchinson, already mentioned as having made experiments in modern times with steel bows, had another peculiarity. On the back of his bow he had a flat piece of hard wood or metal fixed at right angles to the length of his bow. An upright piece of the same material was fitted into a groove in this, whose outside distance was about an inch from the place where the arrow usually touches the bow above the handle.
He used always to shoot with his arrow resting, not on the bow, or on his hand, but in the outside angle between this projection and the upright piece of it. He aimed as other archers do, and has been seen to make excellent hitting at the distance of one hundred yards, even when far advanced in years. In this case the axis of the arrow, or the line of aim, was distant from the plane through the string and the axis of the bow an inch in addition to the usual half-width of the arrow and half-width of the bow. Yet the arrow appeared to fly quite steadily and truly. It is not known why he adopted this peculiarity, and it is unnecessary to inquire; but it will serve as a useful peg whereon to hang a further consideration of the difficulties an arrow has to contend with in getting straight to the point of aim, and its determined resolution to overcome these difficulties. In addition to the forces already discussed as acting upon the arrow, there is also the force of gravity, the resistance of the air, and the interference of the wind; but these forces affect in the same way all arrows, however shot. The same may be said of all the other forces implicated, until there is an artificially increased impediment interposed in addition to the natural one of the half-bow and half-arrow. Now, supposing the distance of the nock from the centre of the bow be such when the arrow is drawn that a perpendicular let fall from the centre of the bow to the line of aim will mark off twenty-seven inches of draw, the resolution of the force acting in the line from the nock to the centre of the bow will be correctly represented by twenty-seven in the direction of the point of aim and three-eighths at right angles to that direction; or the relation between the straight part of the whole force and its remainder will be as 216 to 5.
But when Mr. Hutchinson's peculiar method of shooting is compared with this natural way, it will appear that the relation between these same resolved forces will be as 216 to 13; showing that the obstruction in this latter case has been considerably more than doubled--the keenness of flight will be diminished, and increased _friction_ will be shown between the arrow and its resting-place at the instant of the loose.
Besides the spin given to the string at the loose, there is also a push, at right angles to the direction delivered, by the more or less unavoidable obstruction of the fingers as they liberate the string; but this push, occurring before the liberation of the string, is the final difficulty of the aim and loose.
Immediately the string is loosed the arrow has, as it were, the nocking-place between its teeth in the nock, and contributes to the direction of its course to the point of rest; and it is highly probable that the path of the nocking-place from the loose to rest is not confined to the plane of the string and axis of the bow.
Greater or diminished friction between the bow and arrow would be another way of representing greater or less obstruction to the aim of the arrow. As the arrow deepens the groove made by its pa.s.sage over the bow the obstruction will be diminished, but the surface exposed to this friction will be increased.
If a bow could be so constructed that an arrow could be shot through it just above the handle, the opening must be large enough to admit free pa.s.sage for the feathering as well, and the opening must be contrived so that the 'stele,' true to the point of aim throughout its pa.s.sage through the bow, shall never swerve from the right side of the opening.
CHAPTER IV.
_OF THE STRING, BRACER, AND SHOOTING-GLOVE_
The best bowstrings are all of Belgian make, and cannot be considered of such good quality as they used to be twenty-five years ago. Then the best bowstrings were obtained from a maker at Liege, by name Meeles, the last of his race, who, with his wife, kept most jealously the secret of the manufacture, which had been transmitted through many generations in the one family, and they died childless without communicating it to anyone. Their residence was kept with the windows on the street side constantly barred up, so as to make sure that they could not be overlooked, and they depended entirely for the air and light necessary for their labour on the private garden at the back of the house.
In the choice of a string see that it has three, not two, strands; and care must be taken to avoid those that are too hard and stiff, as they are liable to be brittle and to break very soon. The next thing to be attended to is that the string is smooth and round throughout, and sufficiently increased in bulk at the ends where are the eye and loop.
It cannot be doubted that a quicker cast may be obtained from a _thin string_ than from a _very thick one_; but it will be better to choose strings strong enough in proportion to the strength of the bows to ensure their (i.e. the bows') safety rather than to pay too much regard to this quickness of cast. When the string is chosen its eye must be fitted into the groove of the lower horn of the bow. In order to make _the loop_ at the other end the string must now be applied to the back of the unbent bow, and the first rounded turn of the loop must be made at about three inches from the groove of the upper horn, or two and a half inches in the case of a lady's bow. At about the distance of one inch and a quarter beyond--and one inch in the case of a lady's string--the crown of this rounded turn the string must be sharply bent back, and this sharp bend applied round the string on the other side of the rounded turn. Slip the sharp turn a little further down the string towards the eye, and twist the remaining reversed end of the string three times round the looped part of the string, beginning inwards. The sharp turn must then be pushed back into the first bent position. The eye must now be pa.s.sed over the upper horn, and pa.s.sed far enough down the bow to allow the loop to be pa.s.sed over the lower horn and into its groove, and the loop should be so applied into this groove that the waste end of string shall lie between the sharp turn and the horn (see fig. 16). If the waste end of the string be then knotted firmly, and the remainder cut off, the loop will be finished, and, if successfully managed, will never s.h.i.+ft or stretch when it has once reached its bearings. The virtue in this loop is that it is quite fast and tight when in use, and yet it can be very readily slipped off and opened for readjustment on the same bow, or for application to another bow of different length. By far the neatest finish to a bowstring is the addition of a _second eye_ instead of the _loop_, and this is now very readily done by the bowmakers for their customers at a small additional charge; but every handy archer should learn how to make this second eye for himself. The following method is recommended. When the loop has been correctly adjusted, so that the string, when the bow is braced, is at a suitable distance from the bow (i.e. six inches or so for a man's bow, or five and a half inches for a lady's bow) mark with ink the crown of the rounded turn before mentioned (i.e. the point of the string, not of the waste twisted round the string in the loop nearest to the upper horn). Now unbrace the bow and take off the string. Undo the loop and straighten out the string (see fig. 15). At the distance of one inch and a quarter (one inch is sufficient for a lady's string) from the ink-mark, and on each side of it, tie tight round the string a small piece of fine waxed thread; cut off the waste end of the string at the knot made in finis.h.i.+ng the loop. Keep the part of the string between the two ties well wound up during the whole of the succeeding stages of the manufacture of this part into an eye so as to correct the necessary unwindings. Unwind up to C, fig. 17, completely separate, and straighten out the three strands (1), (2), (3), fig. 17, of the remaining portion of the waste end of the string up to its tie at C. Pa.s.s a small marlinespike or stiletto between each of the three strands of the string, just beyond the other tie at B, and as close to it as possible.
Flatten out the three unwound strands of the waste end fingerwise (fig.
17). Bend (keeping it wound up) the part of the string between the two ties B and C, so as to bring these two ties exactly together, with the separated strands (1), (2), (3) lying across the string at right angles to its worm (see fig. 18). Now insert the middle strand (1), fig. 19 (taking care to cross the worm of the string), with the help of the marlinespike under that strand of the string across which it lay in fig.
18.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 15, FIG. 16, FIG. 17.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 18.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 19, FIG. 20.]
Give the commenced eye a quarter turn to the left (see fig. 20), so that it is seen edgewise, tie C being now out of sight.
Strand (2) now lies across the strand of the string under which strand (1) has just been pa.s.sed, and the next strand of the string. Insert it (2) under this latter strand, and give the eye another quarter turn, showing strand (2) inserted (see fig. 21).
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 21.]
Strand (3) as shown in fig. 21 must now be bent to the left across the central upright strand of the string, and pa.s.sed under that strand and brought out and back towards the right again (see fig. 22).
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 22.]
The loop will now be an _eye_, as soon as the two ties B and C have been brought close together again, and the three strands, loosened by constant manipulation, have been carefully waxed and wound up again.
From this point there are two methods of proceeding: the one, which will complete the eye so as to resemble the manufactured eye, by winding each waste strand round and round its own corresponding strand; and for this method the waste strands should now be _tapered_ before they are wound in. By the other method each waste strand in turn should be pa.s.sed over the next strand and under the next but one. The waste strands will again occupy alternate positions between the other strands. Wind up and wax the waste strands again carefully. Enough has now been done to secure the safety of the _eye-splice_; but it will be best to splice in once again each of the waste strands; then bind tightly over the waste for about half an inch down the string, and cut off the remaining waste strands.
In order to taper the waste strands, divide each into two equal parts, lengthwise, after the position shown in fig. 22 has been completed, and with a blunt knife fine down each of the two parts gradually till each tapers to nothing at the length of about two and a half inches from the string; now work in as much wax as possible, flattening each of the divided portions in so doing; readjust the divided portions, and wind them carefully together again. The waste ends may then be wound round and round the appropriate strands until they disappear; or the first method of splicing may be continued till they fade off and disappear, so that the finis.h.i.+ng process of binding and cutting off the waste ends may be dispensed with. Don't bind the eye with string, leather, or any other material. If the string was originally sufficiently thicker at this part, its final failure is very unlikely to occur at either of the eyes, and there is a general belief that any _unnecessary clothing_ of the eye interferes with the cast of the string. If the waste strands, _untapered_, be spliced in and in very frequently, the string will be somewhat shortened. A string that is too short--i.e. too far from the bow when braced--cannot be lengthened without altering the loop or remaking the eye, but a string that is slightly too long--i.e. not giving sufficient distance between the string and bow when braced--can be shortened by spinning it up tighter; but care must be taken not to attempt this operation with a hard-cemented, new string, as it will almost certainly prove fatal to the string, which will snap in two at the loose; and no string should be much spun up.
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