What year was the first bow made with fibreglass used in the bow?

Mid 50's I would guess.

1947  Just a guess, but I'm petty sure it was in the 40's.

It's earlier than that.  Fred Bear was using unidirectional 'glass in 1951.  I'd guess mid 40's for the first glass-backed bows.

According to    this  , Bear applied for a patent for fiberglass bows in 1946.

Fred Bear's patent application lists these articles:

"Laminated Fiberglass" page 4 American Bowman-Review, October 1945.
"Glass Reinforcements For Archery Bows," pages 4 and 5 December 1945

Since the USA fiberglass cloth was available from 1942 on, and the best resins came from captured German formulas, I bet Fred was tinkering with it for awhile.

  http://www.archpatent.com/patents/2613660  
(you can download some nifty pdfs of his original drawings and patent if you go here:   http://www.archpatent.com/applicants/%22F.%20B.%20BEAR%22.

Frank Eicholtz was putting Conolon fiberglass strips on his bows in the early 1940s. This glass was pioneered by the NARMCO company in San Diego. Frank was THE First to do it!! Everyone else came after. This is not a guess.

Frank used lamicoid plastic in the early forties. In 1944 he finally tried woven fiberglass and built two experimental bows, but still used lamicoid plastic backing the compression side. Fred's patent references 1942 Owens Corning "fiberglass cloth" with no mention of lamicoid or Conlon.  In 1948 Frank began working with Gordon using unidirectional fiberglass.
Frank's pair of Conlon/Lamicoid bows may have been cobbled before Bear's Owens Corning fiberglass prototypes, but I bet Fred had a bunch of projects on his workbench in 1944.

I first met Eicholtz in 1952. I bought several of his bows One was an old one that was one of his first. It had conolon woven glass on the back and lamicoid on the belly. Later I made bows for Frank from 1963 to 1970. I still have a couple of his old glass backed pre-1950s bows. Frank started making flight bows using fiberglass technology, which he pioneered in the '40s, and Harry Drake took one and set a record of over 600 yards--this bow is in the famous Jessop bow collection in San Diego.

Wow,thanks for the history lessons gentlemen.I wish there were more threads like this.

Yeah, thanx for sharing folks...

Always enjoy history, especially archery history, but must admit, first time I ever heard of Frank Eicholtz. Very interesting... Had known Papa Bear applied for the first patent of fiberglass backed  bow, and if I remember correctly tried left over WWII aluminum backing before fiberglass???

Would luv to hear more on Frank Eicholtz...

There is a brief bio of Frank Eicholtz and a picture of him, along with bios of some of the other fathers of trad archery in The Traditional Way, by Fred Anderson. It was published in 1997 by Tox Press, and I would guess it's still in print.

Thanks for the help guys.
I have another question but I will ask it in another thread.

McDave,

Did you click on the poster named "siwash" who provided lots of great info on Frank? Yes, it is Fred Anderson, and his "Traditional Way" book should be in every Archer's library.

Thanks Lon!  I hadn't realized that was Fred himself!  What an honor to have him on this forum.

QuoteOriginally posted by Zbone:
Yeah, thanx for sharing folks...

Always enjoy history, especially archery history, but must admit, first time I ever heard of Frank Eicholtz. Very interesting... Had known Papa Bear applied for the first patent of fiberglass backed  bow, and if I remember correctly tried left over WWII aluminum backing before fiberglass???

Would luv to hear more on Frank Eicholtz...

I don't know about aluminum backing...Fred Bear did produce a few bows with aluminum cores.  If you happen across one of these, hang it on the wall immediately!  The aluminum was subject to metal fatigue and these bows are notorious for spontaneously exploding at full draw.

Yeah, maybe it was limb core rather than backing. Read it in a book but it's been a while and don't remember title or if authored by Mr. Bear himself or biographic.