Dart (missile)
Darts are missile
weapons, designed to fly such that a sharp, often weighted point will strike first. They can be distinguished from
javelins by
fletching (i.e., feathers on the tail) and a shaft that is shorter and/or more flexible, and from
arrows by the fact that they are not of the right length to use with a normal bow.
The term has been used to describe an extremely wide variety of projectiles, from heavy spear-like ammunition for
siege engines or
atlatls to tiny poisoned needles for use in
blowguns.
Some of the earliest evidence of advanced tool use includes remnants of an early type of dart, which can be considered the ancestor of arrows as well as bows (
see Operation). Reconstructions of this system have a range of over one hundred yards (meters) and can penetrate several inches of oak. This technology was used worldwide from the Upper
Palaeolithic (late Solutrean, ca. 18,000-16,000 BC) until the development of
archery made it obsolete (
see Replacement).
Construction
The darts in question are much larger than arrows, but noticeably lighter than javelins. They have a weighted
point, often of
stone and on a removable foreshaft. This is held by friction onto a thin, flexible main shaft several feet 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 have fallen out of favor since in all other uses, spears are stiff enough to be used for stabbing. In its function, an atlatl dart is more like a combination between a
bow and an
arrow.
Operation
Its similarity to a bow may not be immediately obvious, but in fact both serve to accumulate
energy by
elasticity in a fundamentally 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, 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 counter-acting the downward force on the tail.
Atlatl
To maximize elastic energy storage and recovery, such darts should be held only by the nock and allowed to pivot freely as they are thrown. This requires a special tool that is often called a "spear thrower". Western culture has been able to borrow a name for this tool from the
Mexica, who used it against the invading
Spanish, and who called it the
atlatl.
Much is made of the leverage gained by using an atlatl, but in fact more leverage can be applied (to less effect, according to reconstructions) using a
sling to launch a kestrosphendone (see below).
Replacement by the arrow
The absence of the atlatl in recorded Western history can easily be explained by the presence of the bow and arrow. Archery may be easier to learn and have a faster rate of fire, yet perhaps this system's greatest advantage over the atlatl is that ammunition is easier to make and transport.
This can be explained in terms of the amount of elastic energy to be stored in the launching platform and in the projectile itself. 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. 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 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.
Greater mass becomes an advantage when penetration is an overwhelming concern, as when attacking an armored
conquistador or when hunting
whales. This class of dart was not replaced in the equipment of aboriginal
arctic hunters such as the
Aleut until fairly recently.
Reconstructions
Darts 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 [
1].
The darts in use by the developers of the English language (see
Thrown darts, below) 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.
Thrown darts
It is quite reasonable to speculate that the darts used with atlatls 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 a length of about one or two feet (30-60 cm), and resembled an arrow with a long head and short shaft.
The Roman model was weighted with lead, and called the
plumbata. For an image of a plumbata (without its wooden shaft, which did not survive the passage of time) and other projectiles see [
2] In some legions, five of these were carried inside each soldier's shield; reconstructions show a range of 80 yards (About 72 meters) or more when thrown overhand in the fashion of a
potato masher grenade.
Kestrosphendone
This 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 entirely clear whether this is a stave-sling or more closely resembles a shepherd's sling.
Siege engines
Some of the many Chinese and Greek
siege engines and their descendents can be classified as "dart launchers". These include the
ballista and the
scorpion.
Blow darts
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 i.e.
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 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.
Swiss arrow
A
Swiss arrow (also known as a Yorkshire arrow) is dart thrown using a cord to make the dart go further with the same power.
Of the darts still in widespread use, perhaps 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, steel-tip darts generally weigh 18 - 26
grams and maximum of 50
grams is allowed in Amateur or Professional competitions such as the
World Series of Darts. The common length of a dart is generally six to eight inches long, but rules allow for up to a foot in length. They are occasionally used as weapons in
bars and at European
football games, but they are only designed to penetrate
dart boards made of bundled fibers (usually
sisal).
Tranquilizer darts are related to 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 special gun using compressed gas, a tuft of fibers at the back of the missile serving as both
fletching and
wadding. They are a popular device in comic
movies.
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 the wars in
Korea and
Vietnam, but treaties have since been enacted to limit their use. Antipersonnel
artillery shells filled with them have been used as recently as
2004 by
Israeli forces.
Large flechettes are used as
kinetic energy penetrators in many gun-fired anti-armour projectiles.
Darts play an important role in ancient symbolism and mythology:
* In the book of
Ephesians, the "armor of God" passage (6:10-18) compares faith to a shield which can "quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one".
* In
Norse mythology,
Loki tricks
Hod into killing his brother
Baldur with a dart made of
mistletoe.
