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

The Bow River in Banff National Park, southern Alberta, Canada. Famous for its trout fishing, and an important source of hydroelectric power, the Bow rises in the Canadian Rockies at the foot of Mount Gordon. It flows southeast for 587 km/365 mi, running through Calgary before its confluence with the Oldman, at which point it becomes the South Saskatchewan River.

River rising in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and flowing from Bow Lake and through Banff National Park to Calgary, Alberta, joining the Oldman River to form the South Saskatchewan River; length 507 km/315 mi. To the southeast of Calgary it is dammed in several places for irrigation and hydroelectric power, as at the Bassano dam at Horseshoe Bend (Bassano).

Course The Bow rises north of Kicking Horse Pass and flows southeast past Lake Louise and Banff. It then continues east to Calgary, where the Elbow River joins it from the south. From Calgary it winds southeast to its confluence with the Oldman River.

The Canadian Pacific Railway and Trans-Canada Highway follow the Bow Valley west from Calgary to Kicking Horse Pass.

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.