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43-477: Wolfe still paid no attention to me. As a matter of fact, I didn't expect him to, since he was busy taking exercise. He had recently got the impression that he weighed too much—which was about the same as if the Atlantic Ocean formed the opinion that it was too wet—and so had added a new item to his daily routine. … He called the darts javelins. The Rubber Band opens with the revelation that Wolfe has added

86-522: A length of about 30 and 60 cm (12 and 24 in) and resembled an arrow with a long head and short shaft. The Roman model, the plumbata , was weighted with lead. In some legions, five of these were carried inside each soldier's shield; reconstructions show a range of 70 m (230 ft) or more when thrown overhand in the fashion of a German stick grenade . Feathered spears, often called darts or javelins, were used in medieval and Renaissance Europe, both as ceremonial objects and as weapons. It

129-511: A receipt signed by the other members. The next day, Archie receives a phone call from Mike Walsh claiming that he has found "him", only for the call to be ended by a loud noise that sounds like a gunshot. Moments after the call Walsh is found dead, with the Marquis of Clivers standing over the body. Inspector Cramer, Police Commissioner Hombert and District Attorney Skinner arrive at the brownstone and demand that Wolfe share what he has learned about

172-478: A rubber band. After doing so, Wolfe has him summon everyone, including Ramsey Muir, Anthony Perry and the Marquis of Clivers, to his office. Once he arrives, the Marquis recognizes Anthony Perry instantly — he is Rubber Coleman. Wolfe reveals that Perry, or rather Coleman, swindled the money from the other members of the Rubber Band and used it to fund his numerous business enterprises, only to discover that Clara

215-558: A shaft that is shorter and/or more flexible. Darts can be propelled by hand or with the aid of a hand-held implement such as a blowgun . They can be distinguished from arrows because they are not used with a bow . Darts have been used since pre-history. The plumbatae were lead-weighted darts thrown by infantrymen in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Darts can be propelled by a number of means. The atlatl uses leverage to increase

258-528: A warrant has been issued for her arrest. Once the policeman has left, Wolfe questions Fox concerning the stolen money and the murder. Satisfied as to her honesty and innocence on both matters, he accepts her as his client, and persuades her to remain in the brownstone. Mike Walsh rejects Wolfe's offer of protection and storms out. Wolfe sends a letter to the Marquis informing him of the group's claims and suggesting that legal action may be taken. He also informs Perry that he will not be investigating on behalf of him or

301-584: A weighted point , often of stone , on a removable foreshaft. This is held by friction onto a thin, flexible main shaft a few metres in length, with fletching and a (usually socket-like) nock at the opposite end. Since they are unlike anything in Western history, the term "dart" has been adopted after some debate. Some alternate terms for this missile have included the spear , but this term has fallen out of favour since in all other uses, spears are stiff enough to be used for stabbing. In its function, an atlatl dart

344-542: A workout to his daily schedule. He hurls yellow-feathered darts at a poker-dart board that Fritz hangs in the office from 3:45 to 4 p.m. Archie had joined in at first, but quit when he found he had lost nearly $ 100 to Wolfe in the first two months. "There was no chance of getting any real accuracy with it, it was mostly luck," Archie writes. On this particular Sunday, Wolfe exercises alone while Archie needles him by reading aloud, at length, from The New York Times Magazine . The novel introduces Lieutenant Rowcliff , not one of

387-429: Is a stave-sling or more closely resembles a shepherd's sling. The blowgun can be used to fire darts, as well. Often, these are quite small, and do little harm by themselves; instead, they are effective due to poison spread onto their points, from (for example) dart frogs or curare . This is a pointed weight attached at its blunt end to a length of rope or chain, which can be used to throw and retrieve it. It meets

430-487: Is armed with one. Some later artistic depictions suggest they may have also been used for hunting. The kestrosphendone, or kestros , was a sling -launched dart, invented in 168 BC for the Third Macedonian War , probably similar to hand-thrown darts of the period. Casting one (according to surviving records) requires a specially designed sling with two unequal loops, though it is not clear whether this

473-583: Is concerned that one of his employees is being unjustly accused of theft. A package containing $ 30,000 has gone missing, and Ramsey Muir, the company's vice-president is accusing Clara Fox, Perry's personal assistant. Perry's meeting with Archie Goodwin is interrupted by Harlan Scovil, who has recently arrived in New York City from Wyoming and is one of a group that has a later appointment with Wolfe. At one point Scovil seems to mistake Perry for another man, Mike Walsh. Before Archie can attend to Scovil, he

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516-452: Is gunned down by the Marquis and Archie before he can do so. Having proven Clara's innocence, Wolfe negotiates with the Marquis to claim the remainder of the Band's fair share of his inheritance. Guilt-ridden by the deaths she believes have been caused by her quest, Clara attempts to turn it down, but Wolfe persuades her to accept it. "Nero Wolfe talks in a way that no human being on the face of

559-470: Is interrupted by a police detective who brings the news that Harlan Scovil has been murdered. In his pockets were found the contact details for the Marquis of Clivers, prompting the police -- eager to avoid inconveniencing the Marquis and causing diplomatic issues with Britain -- to suspect the group of blackmail. Wolfe also learns from Fred Durkin that the police have found the missing $ 30,000 in Clara's car, and

602-448: Is more like a combination between a bow and an arrow . Its similarity to a bow may not be immediately obvious, but in fact both serve to accumulate energy by elasticity in a similar way. As throwing begins, a dart of this type is designed to flex in compression between the accelerating force at its nock and the inertia of its weighted point, storing energy. Late in this throw, as the point moves faster and so offers less resistance,

645-439: Is possible no examples have survived, presumably due to their fragility or the deterioration of their fletching making them indistinguishable from spears, but they appear in multiple illustrations from the 15th and 16th century. As ceremonial items, they are shown held similar to scepters by military commanders and leaders such as Emperor Maximilian I . Many other illustrations show large darts being wielded as weapons, either on

688-415: Is stored in the throwing device, rather than the projectile; arrow shafts can therefore be much smaller, and have looser tolerances for spring constant and weight distribution than spear-thrower darts. For example, stone dart points from the same set tend to vary in mass by no more than a few percent, and computer simulations show that this is necessary for efficient operation. Similar constraints exist for

731-435: Is summoned to Perry's offices, where Muir—motivated by jealousy and spite after Clara rejected his advances—is threatening to call the police. Archie's preliminary investigations turn up little, and he arrives back to the brownstone to learn that Scovil has left, summoned away by a telephone call. However, the other members of his group have arrived, including the real Mike Walsh, and Archie is surprised to discover that Clara Fox

774-516: Is their leader. Clara wishes to hire Wolfe to recover a sum of money owed to the group by the Marquis of Clivers, a British nobleman in America on confidential government business. Years ago, the group (or in the case of Clara, her father) were a Wild West posse called "The Rubber Band", and they saved the future Marquis from a lynching. The Marquis promised them a substantial share of his fortune in return but has rebuffed Clara's claims. The discussion

817-602: The NYPD 's finest (in the opinion not only of Wolfe but Inspector Cramer ). Rowcliff's search throughout the brownstone for Wolfe's client, Clara Fox, earns Wolfe's enmity, which lasts until the final Wolfe novel in 1975. In addition, The Rubber Band contains the first documented death to occur in Wolfe's office. Nero Wolfe is approached by Anthony Perry, president of the Seaboard Products Corporation, who

860-747: The Ancient Greeks from about 500 B.C. onwards, but the best-known users were from the Roman and Byzantine armies. The best written source for these tactical weapons is Vegetius's treatise known as De Re Militari (1.17): In Europe, the spear-thrower was supplemented by the bow and arrow in the Epipaleolithic period. By the Iron Age, the amentum , a strap attached to the shaft, was the standard European mechanism for throwing lighter javelins. The amentum gives not only range, but also spin to

903-469: The United States, the series was produced by Casanova Multimedia and Rai Fiction and directed by Riccardo Donna. "Il patto dei sei" aired April 26, 2012. Dart (missile) Darts are airborne ranged weapons . They are designed to fly such that a sharp, often weighted point will strike first. They can be distinguished from javelins by the presence of fletching (feathers on the tail) and

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946-490: The ancestor of arrows as well as bows. Reconstructions of this system have a range of over one hundred metres (yards) and can penetrate several centimetres of oak. This technology was used worldwide from the Upper Palaeolithic (late Solutrean, c. 18,000–16,000 BC) until the development of archery made it obsolete. The darts in question are much larger than arrows, but noticeably lighter than javelins. They have

989-415: The battlefield or in smaller engagements such as judicial battles. Depictions show them as being four to seven feet long, with arrow-like feather fletching , barbed points and thick shafts comparable to conventional polearms , presumably able to serve for both throwing and hand-held striking. One such example has historically been depicted on French and English pattern playing cards, where the jack of clubs

1032-436: The case. Wolfe produces Clara and provides proof that she neither stole the $ 30,000 nor murdered Scovil and Walsh. He reveals to the authorities that he is almost ready to solve the case, but one lingering unresolved detail is troubling him. The next morning, Archie is surprised to find Wolfe slamming wooden boards in the orchid rooms, to no purpose that Archie can see. Wolfe takes notice of Archie's bundle of papers secured with

1075-694: The cast of Il patto dei sei include Vittorio Sanipoli (Anthony Perry), Augusto Mastrantoni (Harlan Scoville), Carmen Scarpitta (Clara Fox), Cristina Mascitelli (Hilda Lindquist), Loris Gafforio (Mike Walsh), Sergio Reggi (Sergente Stebbins), Enrico Lazzareschi (Francis Horrocks) and Gastone Bartolucci (Lord Clivers). Roberto Jannone adapted The Rubber Band for the fourth episode of the RAI TV series Nero Wolfe (Italy 2012), starring Francesco Pannofino as Nero Wolfe and Pietro Sermonti as Archie Goodwin. Set in 1959 in Rome, where Wolfe and Archie reside after leaving

1118-473: The closest to traditional thrown darts are lawn darts . These are large and heavy enough to be thrown by swinging, and to seriously wound a person when thrown. An indoor game of darts has also been developed. For competitive purposes, a dart cannot weigh more than 50 g (1.8 oz) including the shaft and flight and cannot exceed a total length of 30 cm (12 in). They are designed to penetrate dart boards . Tranquilizer darts are related to

1161-409: The corporation. For several days, the numerous charges that Clara is facing mean that Wolfe is forced to keep her as his guest in the brownstone. However the police, led by the obnoxious Lt. Rowcliff, soon arrive with a search and arrest warrant to enter the brownstone and arrest Clara for the theft of the $ 30,000. Wolfe is outraged by Rowcliff's impertinence, but is forced to allow the police to search

1204-402: The dart releases most of this energy by springing away from the thrower. Some energy may also be recovered by the fletching as the projectile "fishtails" through the air. However, this energy is far less than is commonly stated and only effectively increases accuracy by counteracting the downward force on the tail. To maximize elastic energy storage and recovery, such darts should be held only by

1247-560: The darts for blowguns, but include a hypodermic needle and a hollow reservoir resembling a syringe , which is generally filled with sedatives or other drugs. These are launched from a dart gun using compressed gas, a tuft of fibers at the back of the missile serving as both fletching and wadding . A type of dart still finds use in military engagements, in the form of flechettes . These are all-metal projectiles, often resembling nails that have had fletching (rather than nail heads) forged into them. They were used by American forces during

1290-411: The definition above because it flies freely when no tension is applied to the rope, has a point and – in the form of a square of cloth – even has fletching. Shengbiao is a discipline of Wushu devoted to its use. A Swiss arrow (also known as a Yorkshire arrow) is a dart thrown using a cord to make the dart go farther with the same power. Of the darts still in widespread use, perhaps

1333-521: The developers of the English language were used throughout Europe for much of its military history, though they were never a dominant weapons technology. They have also lent their name to quite a few weapons from other cultures. It is quite reasonable to speculate the darts used with atlatl s were adapted from hand-thrown darts , which in turn were derived from light javelins. In Europe, short but heavy-pointed darts were sometimes used in warfare. These had

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1376-463: The earth has ever spoken, with the possible exception of Rex Stout after he had a gin and tonic," said Michael Jaffe , executive producer of the A&;E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery . Nero Wolfe's erudite vocabulary is one of the hallmarks of the character. Examples of unfamiliar words — or unfamiliar uses of words that some would otherwise consider familiar — are found throughout the corpus, often in

1419-625: The give-and-take between Wolfe and Archie. The Rubber Band was adapted for a series of Nero Wolfe films produced by the Italian television network RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana). Written and directed by Giuliana Berlinguer , "Il patto dei sei" aired July 27, 1969. The series of black-and-white telemovies stars Tino Buazzelli (Nero Wolfe), Paolo Ferrari (Archie Goodwin), Pupo De Luca (Fritz Brenner), Renzo Palmer (Inspector Cramer), Roberto Pistone (Saul Panzer), Mario Righetti (Orrie Cather) and Gianfranco Varetto (Fred Durkin). Other members of

1462-431: The length, diameter, and materials quality of the shaft. If the same amount of attention and material are instead invested into a bow, projectiles can be made lighter (by a factor of five or more) and to less exacting tolerances . This allowed for more forgiving flint knapping. Greater mass becomes an advantage over archery when penetration is an overwhelming concern, as when harpooning sea mammals . This class of dart

1505-574: The nock and allowed to pivot as they are thrown. This requires a special tool called a spear-thrower . In Western culture these might be called atlatl borrowed from the Aztec , or in Australia the Aboriginal word woomera is used. Plumbatae or martiobarbuli were lead-weighted darts carried by infantrymen in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The first examples seem to have been carried by

1548-652: The phone call that purported to record Walsh's death with the use of a rubber band to simulate a gunshot, thus giving himself an alibi. Though Coleman is defiant, Wolfe reveals that he has obtained the "receipt" that Coleman used to forge the signatures of the other members of the band when claiming the money from the Marquis; even if by chance he cannot be convicted of murder in New York, this will be sufficient to convict him of fraud in England, which will equally expose and ruin him. Thwarted, Coleman attempts to shoot Wolfe but

1591-418: The premises. Clara, however, cannot be found, and once the police have left Wolfe reveals that he concealed her in the orchid rooms. Wolfe receives a visit from the Marquis of Clivers himself, who insists that he has already paid his debt to the Rubber Band. He claims that the group's leader, Rubber Coleman, approached him years ago representing the Band, and that on receiving the money Coleman provided him with

1634-399: The projectile. Archery may be easier to learn and have a faster rate of fire, yet perhaps this system's greatest advantage over the spear-thrower is that ammunition is easier to make and transport. Since the dart must store almost all of the system's elastic energy, more care, planning, and weight of elastic material must be invested in its construction. In archery, the bulk of elastic energy

1677-439: The velocity of the dart, the kestros increases the range of propelled darts using a sling, and the exhalation of a person's breath through a blowgun propels small stone points or poisoned needles with pneumatic force. In the modern era, darts have been used for recreation in lawn darts and the game of darts . Some of the earliest evidence of advanced tool use includes remnants of an early type of dart, which can be considered

1720-476: The wars in Korea and Vietnam , but treaties have since been enacted to limit their use. Large flechettes are used as kinetic energy penetrators in many gun-fired anti-armour projectiles. Michael Jaffe Michael Muir Jaffe (born January 9, 1945) is an American TV and film producer. He started out in the business with his father, producer and former AFTRA lawyer Henry Jaffe (1907–1992). His mother

1763-570: Was actress Jean Muir . He has more than 120 producing credits but ventured into writing and directing only for the A&;E television series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–02), which he called "the love of my life." He is a founding partner of Jaffe/Braunstein Films, which became Jaffe/Braunstein Entertainment in 2007, when ITV bought a controlling share of 51% in the company. Jaffe holds

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1806-424: Was pursuing the Rubber Band's claim. Coleman hired her to keep her close, and attempted to discourage her from her pursuit but framed her for the theft of the $ 30,000 when he was unable to do so. Although intending to hire Wolfe to cover his tracks and throw suspicion off himself, Coleman had the misfortune to be recognised by Scovil at Wolfe's office, and so murdered him and Walsh to preserve his secret. Coleman staged

1849-567: Was used by aboriginal Arctic hunters such as the Aleut until fairly recently. Darts, plumbata and atlatls have been constructed by modern enthusiasts, either with ancient materials and methods or with high technology borrowed from modern archery. While some do this in the context of anthropology or mechanical engineering , many view the practice as a sport , and throw competitively for distance and/or for accuracy. Throws of almost 260 m (850 ft) have been recorded. The darts in use by

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