In the years around 1700 Antonio Stradivarius of Cremona designed the first modern string instruments, as we know them today. It took another 100 years until François Xavier Tourte, inspired and driven by the demand of Viotti and Kreutzer reinvented the bows with a similar genius.

François Tourte lived in Paris from 1748 to 1835. At first he learned the craft of clockmaking and worked in that trade for several years. Thus he learned not only to work with all different metals, but also, unlike other bow makers, came to at least basic knowledge in physics, materials and mathematics. Later, around 1774 he entered bow-making which was the trade of his father and elder brother. However he never had a formal education in this craft. Only in a special quarter, the Quinze-Vingts, could he work in this craft free from the mighty, conservative Guilds. From then on he worked on improving the existing bow design. Around 1782 he was the only "bow-maker" in Paris who was able to design and make a new bow that fulfilled the demands of Viotti and Kreutzer.

His most important innovations and improvements were:

1)  In extensive experiments he found pernambuco wood to be superior to any other materials. According to tales he cut his blanks from staves of sugar casks coming in from Brazil. Bows made from this material had a good resilience and due to the high sonic speed the response was improved.

2)  He made straight sticks and bent them only when he had finished the shape. This way the grains would go all the way through the stick and so improve stiffness and strength.

3)  By optimising the proportions, diameters and curve of the stick, he brought the centre of gravity closer to the frog.

4)  With a metal ring, the ferrule, and a spreader-wedge he secured the hair in an even, flat band. Later he added the mother-of-pearl slide to cover the hair behind the ferrule.

He was probably also the first bow-maker to make tip plates from silver, instead of ivory, to enhance the strength of the fragile wooden heads. Among other things he also improved the threads of the screw, reduced the heights of the frogs and made the first modern bass bows.

Early in the 19th century he perfected his bow aesthetically and functionally. Due to the strong demand of musicians for improved bows they soon became the model for all European bow making. By making one bow per day he produced an estimated 5,000 bows during his lifespan, of which many have been lost over these past two hundred years.

F. X. Tourte finally succeeded in making bows that were strong, easy to play and produced a good sound. It was only logical that in the following years the playing techniques were developed further. Thus it is no coincidence that Nicolo Paganini, who was one of Tourte's early customers, couldn't make a career as a unique virtuoso before the early nineteenth century.

As far as we know François Tourte, just like Antonio Stradivarius and other masters, did not leave any written reports of his mathematical calculations, designs and methods. Thus the following generations of bow-makers had to live on replicating his work and trying to understand their principles by copying them.

Some more bow makers who did not only make great bows but also improved the design further are:

Christian Wilhelm Knopf (1767-1837, Marktneukirchen) invented the metal (brass) frog slide and improved the tip of the screw.

John Kew Dodd (1752-1839, London) was the first to split the sticks correctly from the wood, which increased the strength of the head.

Jean Baptiste Vuillaume (1798-1875, Paris) made sticks also from steel tubes. As steel is quite heavy he had to make them very thin walled, which made them quite fragile. Also for the sound they could probably not compete with pernambuco bows. He also developed new frogs, but could not push that design through.

The development and manufacture of the first fiberglass bows appears to go back to the 60s. The family Glasser in New York, developed a line of bows for student bows, which made it the leading bow making company in the USA. Robert Berg, then bassist at the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra initiated the development of a high-quality bow that is an almost perfect copy of wooden bows.

It appears that Claudio Righetti was the first to apply for a patent on carbon fiber bows in 1989. Benoit Rolland developed a line of hollow carbon fiber bows with an additional internal adjustment system, named "Spiccato" in the early 90s.

In 1996 Andreas Wetzlinger and Bernd Müsing developed an entirely new concept for bows. They would combine a much higher resilience with a reduced weight. The design was based on probably the first ever complete mathematical model of a bow. For its realisation an entirely new process for making carbonfibre sticks was developed.

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