"among the harpooners my research was nearing its end" [BLAC]

We have one of the most iconic openings in the Sherlock Holmes stories in "The Adventure of Black Peter" - the year '95, Holmes in disguise, returning from the butcher's with his weapon of choice: a harpoon.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pulled on his own knowledge of whaling vessels and voyages (as referenced in an earlier IHOSE episode), but how likely was the occurrence which we learned of in this story? The era of hand-held harpooning was over by that time. How does one go about practice-harpooning a pig in polite London society? And what of the physics of the demonstration?

These questions and more await in this episode of Trifles...

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Links

• Please nominate us for a People's Choice Award or in the Arts category in the 2017 Podcast Awards
• "The Adventure of Black Peter"
• I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Episode 48: Dangerous Work

Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra

Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band

Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

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