Guillotine
Dr. Jopseph Ignace Guillotin did not invent the execution machine
that bears his name.
A similar device known as the Hallifax Gibbet had been in use in
that Yorkshire town since 1286 and continued until 1650. It was noticed
by a Scotsman, James Douglas Earl of Morton, who had one built in Edinburgh
in 1556 which became known as the Maiden and lasted until 1710.
There is a credible recording of an execution by a similar machine
in Milan in 1702 and there are paintings of a guillotine like machine
used in Nuremburg in the mid 1500's.
However it was Dr. Guillotin (Deputy of Paris) who on October 10th
1789 proposed to the Constituent Assembly that all condemned criminals
should be beheaded on the grounds of humanity and egalite (equality).
Previously prisoners had been slowly hanged, broken on the wheel or burnt
unless they were of noble birth in which case they were beheaded
by sword. The idea of a standardised and quick, humane death was much
more in line with revolutionary thinking.
The Constituent Assembly duly passed a decree making beheading
the only form of execution on the 25th March 1791 and this came into law
on the 25th March 1792. There was a small problem to this as was indicated
by the then hangman - Sanson - who pointed out the impracticality of executing
all condemned persons by the sword. How right he proved to be as during
the Terror the rate of executions reached staggering proportions.
It was clear that some sort of machine was required and after consultation
with Dr. Antoine Louis the Secretary of the Academy of Surgery such
a machine was devised and built. It was initially known as the louisson
or louisette but no doubt much to the relief of the good surgeon took on
the name of its proposer and became known as the guillotine.
The first one was built in Paris by one Tobias Schmidt, a German
engineer, and was ready for testing using recently deceased bodies from
the hospital of Bicerte on the 17th of April 1792.
It had two large uprights joined by a beam at the top and erected
on a platform reached by 24 steps. The whole contraption was painted a
dull blood red and the weighted blade ran in grooves in the uprights which
were greased with tallow.
However it worked well enough and its first execution was that
of Nicholas-Jacques Pelletier for robbery with violence on 25th April 1792
which went according to plan with his head being severed at the first stroke.
Guillotines were soon supplied to all Departments in France and models
were made as childrens' toys and even as earrings for women.
Experiments were made with a 45 degree angled blade and also a
rounded blade but this proved
unsatisfactory and the angled blade became the standard pattern
in use up until abolition.
The Terror began on the 10th of August and trade for the guillotine
increased rapidly. In the thirteen month period May 1793 - June 1794 no
less than 1225 people were executed in Paris. Altogether many thousands
of French aristocrats and others met their end on the guillotine during
the French Revolution.
France was not the only country to adopt the guillotine as many
other governments saw the advantages in speed and humanity of it
compared to the other methods then available.
It was used by Belgium, some states of Germany, Greece, Switzerland,
Sweden and some other countries well into the present century.
Construction.
All guillotines follow the same basic pattern but the modern ones
did not have a scaffold for the condemned to climb and were placed
directly on the ground. As with the gallows in Britain this was found to
be a great improvement due to the difficulty of getting an often
terrified person with their hands strapped behind them up a flight
of steps.
The two uprights of approximately 14 feet (4000 mm) high and 15
inches (370 mm) apart remain built up on substantial frame but with metal
lined grooves to ensure free running of the triangular shaped weighted
blade. The frame is set perfectly level using spirit levels after the guillotine
is erected.
At right angles to the uprights is a bench shaped structure about
800 mm from the ground at the end of which is the bascule. This is
a hinged board which stands upright to receive the prisoner who is then
strapped to it before the bascule is turned to the horizontal and the slid
forwards bringing the prisoners head into the lunette. The lunette is formed
in two halves each with a semicircular cut out for the prisoner's neck.
When the victim is correctly positioned in the lower half the top half
is lowered into position to prevent them moving. The blade is of steel
about 300 mm deep and is weighted with lead to give a total weight of approximately
40 Kgs. It falls just over 7 feet (2250 mm) in around one third of a second
before being brought to rest by a spring mechanism in the block beneath
the lunette.
The blade is drawn up by a rope running through a brass pulley
until it is caught by a spring release mechanism. It is released by pulling
a cord or a lever mounted on one of the uprights.
There is a metal bucket to catch the head and a metal tray for
the blood. Originally a wicker basket lined with oil cloth had been used
to catch the head. The decapitated body falls or is pushed off the bascule
onto an angled board that deposits it into a basket or coffin.
Execution procedure. In this century the guillotine would be sent
from Paris to the prison by rail and erected in a suitable place during
the night. Just before dawn the officials would go to the condemned man's
cell and inform him that his appeal had failed and that he was to be executed
immediately.
He would be allowed a few minutes to pray with his priest before
having his hands strapped behind his back and the collar of his shirt cut
down. The prison register would be signed for the final time and the prisoner
escorted to the guillotine by warders. On arrival he would immediately
be strapped to the upright bascule and then turned horizontally and slid
into the
lunnette. The top of the lunnette would be brought down immediately
followed by the release of the blade. The whole procedure typically took
less than two minutes to complete.
Up to 1939 executions were carried out in public - normally just
outside the prison gates. The crowds saw very little as the guillotine
was always surrounded by gendarmes but reporters and invited witnesses
were permitted. Eugene Weidmann became the last to suffer in public outside
the Pallais de Justice at Versailles before a large crowd on 16th June
1939 for multiple murder. This execution was photographed and the shots
appeared in the French press. The general public obviously enjoyed it more
than was felt good for them and a week later the government changed the
law making all executions private. Guillotinings had got steadily fewer
during the 20th century and France came under pressure from its European
neighbours to end capital punishment. Capital punishment was finally abolished
in 1981. There were 11 executions between 1958 and 1969 during General
de Gaulle's term as president. De Gaulle commuted 18 or 19 sentences, one
of those condemned rejected the offer of clemency and was executed. Between
1969 and 1973, President Pompidou commuted 12 sentences out of 15. One
of the executions during Pompidou's presidency took place in May 1973 (Ali
Benyanes), the other two in November 1972 (Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems,
the Clairvaux mutineers).
Valery Giscard d'Estaing sanctioned the execution of Christian
Ranucci in July 1976; Jerome Carrein in July 1977; and Hamida Djadoubi
who became the last person to be guillotined in October 1977.
Philippe Maurice was granted clemency by Mitterrand in 1981. Maurice,
a hardened and uneducated criminal at the time, is now noted as a talented
history researcher. He remains imprisoned.
The cause of death.
The prisoner will become unconscious within a few seconds and dies
from shock and anoxia due to
haemorrhage and loss of blood pressure within less than 60 seconds.
It has often been reported that the eyes and mouths of people beheaded
have shown signs of movement. It has been calculated that the human brain
has enough oxygen stored for metabolism to persist about seven seconds
after the supply is cut off.
Various experiments have been made on guillotined heads and generally
seem to show that little
consciousness remains by 5 seconds after separation from the body
although some have concluded that the head retains feeling for much longer.
Whatever the truth guillotining is probably one of the least cruel methods
of execution and yet one that has a high deterrent value because it is
so gruesome.
The guillotine was the catalyst for the famous Madame Tussuad's
waxwork exhibitions.
In the 1790’s there was, of course, no television and the rudimentary
media of the time had no means of printing pictures in quantity. Thus only
very few people knew what the French aristocracy looked like. Madame Tussuad
collected the guillotined heads and made plaster casts of them which she
then filled with wax to give a reasonable likeness. She toured France with
her exhibition for some time before falling foul of the Revolution herself
and fleeing to England where her work continued which is still enormously
popular today. Executed criminals continued to be popular subjects and
Tussuads used to buy the clothes and other effects of famous criminals
from the hangman in the days when these items became his property after
the execution.
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