bow

In music, a stick holding lengths of stretched horsehair which is drawn across the strings of a member of the violin or viol family in order to produce sound vibrations in the string. Before the 17th century bows were convex, but changes in violin technique prompted the development of concave bows, perfected by François Tourte (1747-1835) at the end of the 18th century.

Unusual instruments that have been played with a bow include the glass harmonica and musical saw.

Bow

Town in south-central New Hampshire, on the Merrimack River, adjoining and south of Concord; population (1990) 5,500. Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy was born here in 1821.

Nearby Bow Mills is the site of New Hampshire's oldest sawmill, established around 1800.