[MB.]

The concept of employing a rig utilizing falling velocity and a blade for the purpose of decapitation is an ancient idea, harking back to the medieval period. The infamous Halifax Gibbet of 1280 represents a clear, albeit rather crude, precursor. According to Richard Clark’s website on capital punishment, and his page on the Guillotine specifically, “There is a credible recording of an execution by a similar machine [to the guillotine] in Milan in 1702, and there are paintings of a guillotine like machine used in Nuremberg in the mid 1500's.” Clearly, the notion of mechanizing decapitation did not originate with Dr. Guillotin, nor the Enlightenment itself.
Nevertheless, the events by which the Dr. Guillotin came to produce his contraption are strictly linked to the history of the French Revolution. According to Regina Janes, the moment which defined the creation of a mechanical apparatus for the purpose of execution was “the new criminal code of 1791” proclaimed by the Constituent Assembly. Therein it was stipulated- in a fit of enlightenment rationalism and egalitarianism- that those condemned to death would be beheaded. Given the increased demand for beheading the criminal code had created and the relative difficulty of decapitating someone with a sword, then the standard method of decapitation, a new method would have to be devised. Henri Sanson, the chief executer for Paris, suggested as much in 1791. Clark confirms Janes’ assessment, writing that Sanson, “pointed out the impracticality of executing all condemned persons by the sword.” Thus, the penalty for death required a standardized method of decapitation.
Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, to whose names the machine which eventually filled this decapitating niche is attached, did not design the device itself. He proposed developing a beheading machine, but the actual design and construction was carried out by Sanson, the executioner, and Dr. Antoine Louis, the latter who had been commissioned by the Constituent Assembly to develop the machine in question. According to Janes, the two conducted “extensive research” around Europe, which included studies of the Halifax Gibbet and the equally medieval “Maiden at Edinburgh.” The machine constructed by the two- called the Louisette after its designer- was used to execute “a thief in April 1792.”


Andrew Plumridge, The Halifax Gibbet, 17 Jan 2007, <http://www.metaphor.dk/guillotine/Pages/gibbet.html> (28 Oct 2007). Jorn Fabricius is the site webmaster, as listed in the Works Cited section.
Richard Clark, History of the Guillotine, 14 Oct 2007, <http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/guillotine.html> (28 Oct 2007).
Regina Janes, “Beheadings,” in Representations, No., 35, Special Issue (Summer 1991), 32.
Ibid. “Henri Sanson [the head executioner for Paris] protested that present technology, the sword, was inadequate to meet the projected demand.”
Clark, History of the Guillotine, 14 Oct 2007, <http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/guillotine.html> (28 Oct 2007).
Janes, “Beheadings,” 32.
Ibid.
Ibid.






Anyone have any information on the device?

[ThereBeDragons]

I wrote an essay on it in tenth grade.

It was, as you would expect, major suck.

Also, the Nazis had fun with the guillotine too.

[MB.]

Really? Do u have any info?

[Frank_Carbonni]

Really? Do u have any info?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Germany

Under Hitler nearly 40,000 death sentences were handed down, mainly by the Volksgerichtshof and also by the Reich Military Tribunal. Executions were carried out most often by beheading using the guillotine but from 1942 onwards hanging using the short-drop method was also commonplace. A firing squad was reserved for military offenders.

Here is a German serial killer that was executed by guillotine (before the Nazis came to power):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kurtin

"Tell me, after my head has been chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck?...that would be the pleasure to end all pleasures.