In the creation of laminated bows, the bowyers recognizedthe principles of stress and compression. Dr. Hickman, of theBell Telephone laboratories, introduced a silk backing thatadded much to bow efficiency. This was followed by a backingmade from a rayon product called fortisan which is also anexcellent material. Then came fibre glass which seems to bethe best backing yet developed. All these materials have avery fast and complete recovery when in action.
In working out the other strain, compression, natural woodsuch as osage orange, plastics such as toxwood and fibre glassand metals such as aluminum have been successfully used.These, too, have a quick and satisfactory recovery when inaction.
