Several years ago, I was fortunate enough to visit Germany.
One of the places that I saw was the walled city of Rotendam (I may be
spelling this wrong). At any rate, in this city was a Museum that
specialized on Criminal Activity and Punishments. The Americans generally
called it the "Torture Museum" It was here that I was first introduced
to the procedure known as "Breaking on the Wheel". An unbelievable
brutal execution! Also depicted in both drawings and models
was the public flogging. What I found interesting was that some of
the floggings shown were with the victim receiving the strokes to the chest
and not the back. The were several samples of the whips used.
Some were 5-thonged corded whips, but others were these flogging brooms
as I am showing above. Made of dozens of banded metal strands, these
presented a horrifying punishment tool indeed.