The guillotine is a kind of pinnacle of execution that has become one of the infamous symbols of the French Revolution. The mechanism that replaced man in the craft of the executioner - was he just a reflection of soulless terror or a way to show mercy? We deal with Popular Mechanics.
Guillotine (fr. Guillotine) - a special mechanism for the execution of the death penalty by cutting off the head. Execution using the guillotine is called guillotine. It is noteworthy that this invention was used by the French right up to 1977! In the same year, for comparison, the Soyuz-24 manned spacecraft went into space.
The guillotine is simple, but it copes with its duties very effectively. Its main part is a "lamb" - a heavy (up to 100 kg) oblique metal blade, which freely moves vertically along the guide beams. It was held at a height of 2-3 meters with clamps. When a prisoner was placed on a bench with a special recess that did not allow the convict to pull back his head, the clamps were released using a lever, after which the blade decapitated the victim at high speed.
History
Despite its fame, this invention was not invented by the French. The "great-grandmother" of the guillotine is the "Halifax Gibbet", which was just a wooden structure with two posts crowned with a horizontal beam. The role of the blade was played by a heavy ax blade, which slid up and down along the grooves of the beam. Such structures were installed in city squares, and the first mention of them dates back to 1066.
The guillotine had many other ancestors. Scottish Maiden (Virgo), Italian Mandaya, they all relied on the same principle. Decapitation was considered one of the most humane executions, and in the hands of a skilled executioner, the victim died quickly and without suffering. However, it was the laboriousness of the process (as well as the abundance of convicts who added work to the executioners) that ultimately led to the creation of a universal mechanism. What was hard work for a person (not only moral, but also physical), the machine did quickly and without mistakes.
Creation and popularity
At the beginning of the 18th century, there were a great many ways to execute people in France: the unfortunates were burned, crucified on their hind legs, hanged, quartered, and so on. Execution by decapitation (decapitation) was a kind of privilege, and only the rich and powerful people got it. Gradually, the people grew indignant at such cruelty. Many followers of the ideas of the Enlightenment sought to humanize the execution process as much as possible. One of them was Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who proposed the introduction of the guillotine in one of six articles he presented during the debate on the French Penal Code on October 10, 1789. In addition, he proposed introducing a system of nationwide standardization of punishment and a system for protecting the family of the offender, which should not be harmed or discredited. On December 1, 1789, Guillotin's proposals were accepted, but execution by machine was rejected. However, later, when the doctor himself had already abandoned his idea, it was warmly supported by other politicians, so that in 1791 the guillotine nevertheless took its place in the criminal system. Although Guillotin's demand to hide the execution from prying eyes did not appeal to those in power, and the guillotine became a popular entertainment - the convicts were executed in the squares amid the whistle and hooting of the crowd.
The first to be executed on the guillotine was a robber named Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier. Among the people, she quickly received such nicknames as "national razor", "widow" and "Madame Guillotin". It is important to note that the guillotine was in no way associated with any particular stratum of society and, in a certain sense, equalized everyone - it was not for nothing that Robespierre himself was executed there.
From the 1870s until the abolition of the death penalty, an improved Berger guillotine was used in France. It is collapsible and installed directly on the ground, usually in front of the prison gate, while the scaffold was no longer in use. The execution itself takes a few seconds, the decapitated body instantly collided with the executioner's henchmen into a prepared deep box with a lid. During the same period, the posts of regional executioners were abolished. The executioner, his assistants and the guillotine were now based in Paris and traveled to the places of execution.
End of story
Public executions continued in France until 1939, when Eugene Weidmann became the last victim in the open air. Thus, it took almost 150 years for the wishes of Guillotin to be realized in the secrecy of the execution process from prying eyes. The last government use of the guillotine in France was on September 10, 1977, when Hamid Jandoubi was executed. The next execution was supposed to take place in 1981, but the alleged victim, Philip Maurice, received a pardon. The death penalty was abolished in France that same year.
I would like to note that, contrary to rumors, Dr. Guillotin himself escaped his own invention and died a natural death in 1814.
