guillotine

1. A device consisting of a heavy blade held aloft between upright guides and dropped to behead a person condemned to die.
2. An instrument, such as a paper cutter, similar in action to a guillotine.

1. To behead with a guillotine.
2. To cut with a guillotine or sharp blade.

[French, after Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814), French physician.]

WORD HISTORY   "At half past 12 the guillotine severed her head from her body." So reads the statement containing the first recorded use of guillotine in English, found in the Annual Register of 1793. Ironically, the guillotine, which became the most notable symbol of the excesses of the French Revolution, was named for a humanitarian physician, Joseph Ignace Guillotin. Guillotin, a member of the French Constituent Assembly, recommended in a speech to that body on October 10, 1789, that executions be performed by a beheading device rather than by hanging, the method used for commoners, or by the sword, reserved for the nobility. He argued that beheading by machine was quicker and less painful than the work of the rope and the sword. In 1791 the Assembly did indeed adopt beheading by machine as the state's preferred method of execution. A beheading device designed by Dr. Antoine Louis, secretary of the College of Surgeons, was first used on April 25, 1792, to execute a highwayman named Pelletier or Peletier. The device was called a louisette or louison after its inventor's name, but because of Guillotin's famous speech, his name became irrevocably associated with the machine. After Guillotin's death in 1814, his children tried unsuccessfully to get the device's name changed. When their efforts failed, they were allowed to change their name instead.

For more information on guillotine, visit Britannica.com.

Background

The guillotine evokes images of horrifying and bloody public executions during the French Revolution in the eighteenth century. Many historians consider this device the first execution method that lessened the victim's pain and the first step in raising public awareness of the morality of the death penalty. It is difficult, however, to think of the guillotine as humane when descriptions of blood flowing in the streets of Paris paint such a gruesome picture.

The guillotine was used for a single purpose, decapitation. The device releases a blade that falls about 89 in (226 cm). With the combined weight of the blade and the mouton (a metal weight), the guillotine can cut through the neck in 0.005 seconds. Expert craftsmen, such as carpenters, metal workers, and blacksmiths, made parts of the guillotine separately and then others assembled the parts at the site of the execution. The guillotine was never mass-produced.

History

Although history links the guillotine to the French Revolution, an earlier version of a similar instrument was used as early as 1307 in Ireland. In Italy and Southern France, another guillotine-like device called the mannaia was used in the sixteenth century, but only to execute nobility.

Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin was a physician and a deputy of the National Assembly of France, an early stage of the Revolutionary government. He recognized and promoted the guillotine's use in 1789. Dr. Guillotin believed this swift method of execution would reform capital punishment in keeping with human rights. Other Assembly members rejected his championing of the guillotine with laughter.

In 1792, a public executioner named Charles-Henri Sanson recommended reconsideration of the guillotine and Dr. Antoine Louis (the secretary of the Academy of Surgeons) supported him. In April 1792, Tobias Schmidt (a German piano maker) built the first working model in less than a week. On April 17, 1792, the executioner tested the prototype by decapitating sheep, calves, and corpses from the local poorhouse. On April 25, Nicolas Pelletier (a thief who viciously assaulted his victims) entered the history books as the first criminal beheaded by the guillotine.

In its earliest days, the guillotine was called the "louison" or "louisette" after Dr. Louis who had pressed it into service. Later, the name changed to commemorate Dr. Guillotin, who—although he had never constructed a single instrument—came to resent this association. Most commonly, it was simply called "the machine."

The most famous victims of the guillotine were King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie-Antoinette. The King was convicted by the Revolutionary government in 1793 for treason. He was decapitated on January 21, 1793. His wife, Marie-Antoinette, was imprisoned for nine months after the King's death until she was also executed by the machine's blade. Charles-Henri Sanson executed the King and his son, Henri, dispatched the Queen.

Estimates of the number of lives taken by the guillotine during the French Revolution range from 17,000 to 40,000 citizens. It is thought that three-quarters of the executed were innocent. In its "glory" days, the guillotine took 3,000 lives in one month. Paris was responsible for only 16% of executions; in cities with many counter revolutionaries, like Lyons, many more faced the blade. The locations of public executions were moved frequently. After beheadings, blood continued to pump out of the bodies, overtopping the gutters, and running down the streets. In France, the guillotine remained the official execution device until the last use of the "national razor" in 1977. French President François Mitterand abolished the death penalty in 1981.

Raw Materials

The platform, posts, déclic for the rope, crossbar, the bascule (bench supporting the body), and the lunette (the device holding the head) were made of hard wood. The mouton was the metal weight to which the blade was attached. The extra weight ensured a swift, clean cut. The blade itself was made of steel, and the heavy-duty rope was cotton. Leather straps restrained the victim's body around the arms and to the bench around the back and legs. A leather bag or basket was also used to catch the falling head.

Design

Very few design changes occurred during the history of the guillotine. The primary modification was the adaptation of the size and weight of the machine to a horse-drawn cart when portability was needed to increase the efficiency of the machine. These moveable guillotines were mounted on horse-drawn carts that were also made of wood with wooden wheels strapped with iron. Wood braces were attached to the wheels when the guillotine was used to keep it motionless.

The Manufacturing
Process

Guillotines were hand crafted locally and were relatively simple to make because they were without ornamentation or refined finishes. The craftsmen were very experienced with wood construction and the honing (shaping and sharpening) of the steel for the blade.

1. Construction of the guillotine began with the platform or scaffold. A skilled carpenter cut the lumber for the major pieces including post supports, interconnecting beams, the floorboards, and the steps for the stairway underneath the platform. The stairs bottomed at one open end of the scaffold (on the front side of the guillotine) and opened in an entry or hatch near the other end of the platform at the back of the guillotine. The platform also had an open railing around three sides of the scaffold; the side without the railing was toward the front of the machine and the bottom of the stairs.
2. The supports and beams were all nailed together to form a base. The floor was either built as a separate unit with an underside of wood sheets, much like modern rough-grade plywood, and a top face of long, thin floorboards. The two layers reduced weathering and other damage. The unit could then be lifted in place and nailed to the edges and cross beams of the scaffold.

   If the guillotine was constructed at the execution site, construction of the platform continued by adding the side rails. The stairway was built while the platform was being constructed by making a four-sided base with interior braces for strength. One side was the front face of the first stair, the back extended from the ground up to form the back of the top stair, and the two identical sides had bottom and back edges forming a 90° angle. Both sides were cut to hold the tops and backs of the set of stairs.

3. While the platform was being constructed, work began on the steel blade and mouton. The width between the posts and the maximum thickness of the blade were provided to the forger or blacksmith. This specialist made a mold for the blade. The cutting edge angled up from one side of the blade (in an oblique angle) to the opposite post. The angle allowed the blade to cut more quickly and cleanly; a blade with an even edge (parallel with the upper cross beam) would have encountered more friction as it tried to cut through the wider back of the neck. Molten steel was poured into the mold. The craftsman sharpened the cutting tip by repeated filing, hammering, and reheating. Worn blades were also resharpened this way. The steel blade generally weighed about 15 lb (7 kg).
4. The mouton was manufactured the same way. The craftsman would melt the metal down and pour it into a mold. After the mold cooled, it would be taken out. The mouton typically weighed 66 lb (30 kg).
5. Workers would then screw the blade to the mouton with three bolts, two in the bottom corners and one in the middle. The bolts would then be welded into place.
6. When the platform was complete or if other carpenters were available, construction of the machine frame began. A small-diameter tree for each post was cut to create a four-sided post, then a groove was cut out on the inside of each post and chiseled so the falling blade would drop smoothly. At the base of the machine, the posts were mounted in a wide crossbar. The blade and mouton were fitted in the post grooves, and a crossbar at the top that was exactly the width between the side posts was fitted in place. The upper crossbar also had a hole in the top for the rope and a groove along the top and side to guide the rope. Metal rings were fixed to the outside of the top crossbar and one or two points down the post to guide the rope. Wood braces were fitted to the outsides of the posts and extended down at angles to the base crossbar for added strength.
7. On the back side, where the victim and the executioner stood, another crossbar was mounted to hold the lunette, which consisted of two separate pieces of relatively thin wood with a hole big enough for the victim's neck. Half of the hole was in the bottom section of the lunette, and the matching half-moon was in the top portion. The upper half was hinged on the post so it could be raised for the prisoner's head. The machine as a separate piece was complete and could be hauled on a cart to the site.
8. The bascule was carved out of wood by a carpenter and transported to the site of the execution. The end of the bascule nearest the blade had leather straps to restrain the victim's arms, and straps crossing the bench kept the back and legs tied down.
9. The déclic was a wooden handle that opened the grooves in the posts. It was attached to the outside of one of the vertical posts so that the executioner could easily release the blade.
10. The rope was is made from natural fibers and twisted into yarn. The yarn is then woven and twisted rope. The rope is tied securely to the top of the mouton, through the hole in the upper crossbar, through the rings, and wrapped around the déclic. In the early days of the guillotine, the executioner cut the rope with a sword to drop the blade, but it became too time-consuming to readjust the rope so they changed the design to incorporate the déclic.

Quality Control

The executioner usually owned the guillotine and accessories. Executioners in major cities owned several guillotines and cycled them in and out of use for repair. Quality control of construction and maintenance were entirely the executioner's responsibility.

The executioner also maintained a fleet of eight to 10 tumbrels for transporting the victims from the prison to the guillotine. A coach maker constructed and repaired the tumbrels and carts for hauling the guillotine's pieces, but the executioner had to approve the work.

With this particular product, quality control was also required for the execution process. Five to eight assistants helped the executioner lead the victim to the machine, remove any clothing around the neck, and cut the victim's hair. They strapped the victim down, placed the victim's head across the lunette, and lowered the top of the lunette around the victim's neck in a series of smooth motions. The executioner released the déclic, the head and body were separated in a split second by the weight of the blade and mouton, and the head fell into a leather bag or lined basket. An assistant raised the head for the crowd's approval, and several other assistants took the head and body back down the stairs where they were thrown into carts for disposal. Heads of well-known victims had the added distinction of being impaled on poles.

The Future

The guillotine has been relegated to history and lore and is no longer used for executions. In isolated cases, craftsmen make guillotines for entertainment (films and television), but these are built with sophisticated safety systems and often as models. There are books and kits available to make models of the guillotine.

The guillotine has since been replaced by other so-called humane ways of executing criminals, such as lethal injection, hanging, gas chambers, a firing squad, and the electric chair. Thirty-eight of the United States apply the death penalty, but Texas leads the number of executed criminals with a total of 253 as of January of 2001.

Where to Learn More

Books

Banfield, Susan. The Rights of Man, The Reign of Terror: The Story of the French Revolution. New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1989.

Doyle, William. The Oxford History of the French Revolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

Guillon, Edmund Vincent. Build Your Own Guillotine: Make A Model That Actually Works. New York: Putnam, 1982.

Schama, Simon. Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.

Vallois, Thirza. Around and About Paris. Vol. 1. London: Iliad Books, 1999.

Periodicals

"Dr. Guillotin's Killing Machine." Maclean's 102, no. 20 (May 1989): 34.

Lawday, David. "The Heirs of Madame Guillotine: The Descendants of France's Dynasty of Executioners Today Ponder the Paradoxes of the Revolution." U.S. News & World Report 107, no. 3 (17 July 1989): 46-49.

Other

"The Guillotine." Mutimedia World History December 2001. <http://www.historywiz.com>.

[Article by: Gillian S. Holmes]

Machine that cuts large stacks of paper, before or after printing, to a desired size; also called paper cutter; power cutter. Oversized reply forms may be guillotined before being processed by a fulfillment operation to make them easier for key entry clerks to handle and store or to make them feed through OCR (optical character recognition) scanners faster. Printers and binders use guillotines to cut sheets prior to printing, to cut printed sheets prior to folding or die-cutting (see die cut), to cut folded sheets into individual pages for binding, and/or to separate printed 2-up or 4-up sheets. Guillotines are powerful and dangerous machines, and the safety of the operator is a crucial consideration in guillotine design and usage.

Term adopted in the United Kingdom and the United States in the late nineteenth century to describe the enforced closure of parliamentary debate, by analogy with the revolutionary guillotine of France. Formally an ‘allocation of time motion’ in the United Kingdom, a guillotine regulates the amount of time the House of Commons devotes to debate on a particular bill, either on the floor of the house or in committee. A guillotine was first used to manage debates in the House of Commons in 1881, when Irish MPs tried to filibuster the Coercion Bill.

A machine designed for beheading people quickly and with minimal pain. The guillotine, which used a large falling knife blade, was devised by a physician, Joseph Guillotin, during the French Revolution and was used as the official method of execution in France until the twentieth century.

A surgical instrument with a sliding blade for excising a tonsil or a toenail.

n.

A machine which makes a Frenchman shrug his shoulders with good reason.

In his great work on Divergent Lines of Racial Evolution, the learned Professor Brayfugle argues from the prevalence of this gesture -- the shrug -- among Frenchmen, that they are descended from turtles and it is simply a survival of the habit of retracing the head inside the shell. It is with reluctance that I differ with so eminent an authority, but in my judgment (as more elaborately set forth and enforced in my work entitled Hereditary Emotions -- lib. II, c. XI) the shrug is a poor foundation upon which to build so important a theory, for previously to the Revolution the gesture was unknown. I have not a doubt that it is directly referable to the terror inspired by the guillotine during the period of that instrument's activity.

Dreaming about having one's head cut off in a guillotine could indicate a loss of one's rational perspective on something. Perhaps the dream is a literalizing of the expression "to lose one's head." (See also Beheading; Decapitation).

This article is about the decapitation device. For other uses, see Guillotine (disambiguation).

Historic replicas (1:6 scale) of the two main types of French guillotines: Model 1792, left, and Model 1872 (state as of 1907), right

The guillotine (English pronunciation: /ˈɡɪlətiːn/ or /ˈɡiː.ətiːn/; French: [ɡijɔtin]) was a device used for carrying out executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which a blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body. The device is noted for long being the main method of execution in France and, more particularly, for its use during the French Revolution, when it "became a part of popular culture, celebrated as the people's avenger by supporters of the Revolution and vilified as the pre-eminent symbol of the Terror by opponents".^[1] Nevertheless, the guillotine continued to be used long after the French Revolution in several countries.

Contents 1 History and variations 1.1 Middle Ages 1.2 Tudor era to 17th century 2 French Revolution 2.1 Reign of Terror 2.2 Retirement 3 Elsewhere 4 Living heads 5 Suicides 6 See also 7 References 7.1 Footnotes 7.2 Notations 8 Further reading 9 External links

History and variations

Middle Ages

The Halifax Gibbet, a device that predates the guillotine

The guillotine became notorious (and acquired its name) in France at the time of the French Revolution; however, guillotine-like devices, such as the Halifax Gibbet and Scottish Maiden, existed and were used for executions in several European countries long before the French Revolution, the earliest reference to the Halifax Gibbet dating back to 1286.

The Scottish Maiden, an older Scottish design

Tudor era to 17th century

The first documented use of the (Irish) Maiden was in 1307 in Ireland,^[2] and there are accounts of similar devices in Italy and Switzerland dating back to the 15th century. Nevertheless, the French developed the machine further and became the first nation to use it as a standard execution method.

French Revolution

Portrait of Dr. Guillotin

The execution of Robespierre

Sensing the growing discontent, Louis XVI banned the use of the breaking wheel.^[3] In 1791, as the French Revolution progressed, the National Assembly sought a new method to be used on all condemned people regardless of class. Their concerns contributed to the idea that capital punishment's purpose was the ending of life instead of the infliction of pain.^[3]

A committee was formed under Antoine Louis, physician to the King and Secretary to the Academy of Surgery.^[3] Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a professor of anatomy at the facility of medicine in Paris, was also on the committee. The group was influenced by the Italian Mannaia (or Mannaja), the Scottish Maiden, and the Halifax Gibbet. While these prior instruments usually crushed the neck or used blunt force to take off a head, their device used a crescent blade and a lunette (a hinged two part yoke to immobilize the victim's neck).^[3]

Laquiante, an officer of the Strasbourg criminal court, made a design for a beheading machine and employed Tobias Schmidt, a German engineer and harpsichord maker, to construct a prototype.^[4] Antoine Louis is also credited with the design of the prototype. An apocryphal story claims that King Louis XVI (an amateur locksmith) recommended a triangular blade with a beveled edge be used instead of a crescent blade,^[3] but it was Schmidt who suggested placing the blade at an oblique 45-degree angle and changing it from the curved blade.^[5] The first execution-by-guillotine was performed on highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier^[6] on April 25, 1792.^[7][8][9]

The basis for the machine's success was the belief that it was a humane form of execution, contrasting with the methods used in pre-revolutionary, Ancien Régime France. In France, before the guillotine, members of the nobility were beheaded with a sword or axe, while commoners were usually hanged, a form of death that could take minutes or longer. Other more gruesome methods of executions were also used, such as the wheel, burning at the stake, etc. In the case of decapitation, it also sometimes took repeated blows to sever the head completely, and it was also very likely for the condemned to slowly bleed to death from their wounds before the head could be severed. The condemned or the family of the condemned would sometimes pay the executioner to ensure that the blade was sharp in order to provide for a quick and relatively painless death.

The guillotine was thus perceived to deliver an immediate death without risk of suffocation. Furthermore, having only one method of execution was seen as an expression of equality among citizens. The guillotine was then the only legal execution method in France until the abolition of the death penalty in 1981^[10], apart from certain crimes against the security of the state, which entailed execution by firing squad.^[11]

Reign of Terror

The period from June 1793 to July 1794 in France is known as the Reign of Terror or simply "the Terror". The upheaval following the overthrow of the monarchy, invasion by foreign monarchist powers and the Revolt in the Vendée combined to throw the nation into chaos and the government into frenzied paranoia. Most of the democratic reforms of the revolution were suspended and large-scale executions by guillotine began. The first political prisoner to be executed was Collenot d'Angremont of the National Guard, followed soon after by the King's trusted collaborator in his ill-fated attempt to moderate the Revolution, Arnaud de Laporte, both in 1792. Former King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were executed in 1793. Maximilien Robespierre became one of the most powerful men in the government, and the figure most associated with the Terror. The Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced thousands to the guillotine. Nobility and commoners, intellectuals, politicians and prostitutes,^{[citation needed]} all were liable to be executed on little or no grounds; suspicion of "crimes against liberty" was enough to earn one an appointment with "Madame Guillotine" (also referred to as "The National Razor"). Estimates of the death toll range between 15,000 and 40,000.^{[citation needed]}

Public guillotining in Lons-le-Saunier, 1897. Picture taken on 20 April 1897, in front of the jailhouse of Lons-le-Saunier, Jura. The man who was going to be beheaded was Pierre Vaillat, who killed two elder siblings on Christmas Day, 1896, in order to rob them and was condemned for his crimes on 9 March 1897.

At this time, Paris executions were carried out in the Place de la Revolution (former Place Louis XV and current Place de la Concorde) (near the Louvre); the guillotine stood in the corner near the Hôtel Crillon where the statue of Brest can be found today.

For a time, executions by guillotine were a popular entertainment that attracted great crowds of spectators. Vendors would sell programs listing the names of those scheduled to die. People would come day after day and vie for the best seats; knitting female citizens (tricoteuses) formed a cadre of hardcore regulars, inciting the crowd as a kind of anachronistic cheerleaders. Parents would bring their children. By the end of the Terror the crowds had thinned drastically. Excessive repetition had staled even this most grisly of entertainments, and audiences grew bored.

Eventually, the National Convention had enough of the Terror, partially fearing for their own lives, and turned against Maximilien Robespierre. In July 1794 he was arrested and executed in the same fashion as those whom he had condemned. This arguably ended the Terror, as the French expressed their discontent with Robespierre's policy by guillotining him.^[12]

Retirement

The last public guillotining was of Eugen Weidmann, who was convicted of six murders. He was beheaded on 17 June 1939, outside the prison Saint-Pierre rue Georges Clémenceau 5 at Versailles, which is now the Palais de Justice. The allegedly scandalous behaviour of some of the onlookers on this occasion, and an incorrect assembly of the apparatus, as well as the fact it was secretly filmed, caused the authorities to decide that executions in the future were to take place in the prison courtyard. Jules-Henri Desfourneaux, the presiding "number one" executioner at this time was variously reported as slow, possibly drunk, and indecisive, certainly a far cry from his well-regarded immediate predecessor Anatole Deibler. He was also prone to arguing with his cousin and "number two" André Obrecht which led to the latter's resignation on two separate occasions, the last involving a fistfight between the pair after an execution.^{[citation needed]}

The guillotine remained the official method of execution in France until France abolished the death penalty in 1981.^[13] The last guillotining in France was that of torture-murderer Hamida Djandoubi on 10 September 1977.

Elsewhere

German Fallbeil of 1854, Munich
(Historic replica 1:6 scale)

As has been noted, there were guillotine-like devices in countries other than France before 1792. A number of countries, especially in Europe, continued to employ this method of execution into modern times.

In Antwerp, Belgium, the last beheaded was Francis Kol. Convicted for robbery with murder, he received his punishment on 8 May 1856. During the period from 19 March 1798 until 12 March 1856, the town of Antwerp counted 19 beheadings^[14]

In Germany, where the guillotine is known in German as Fallbeil ("falling axe"), it was used in various German states from the 17th century onwards, becoming the usual method of execution in Napoleonic times in many parts of Germany. The guillotine and the firing squad were the legal methods of execution during the German Empire (1871–1918) and the Weimar Republic (1919–1933).

The original German guillotines resembled the French Berger 1872 model but eventually evolved into more specialised machines largely built of metal with a much heavier blade enabling shorter uprights to be used. Accompanied by a more efficient blade recovery system and the eventual removal of the tilting board (or bascule) this allowed a quicker turn-around time between executions, the victim being decapitated either face up or down depending on how the executioner predicted they would react to the sight of the machine. Those deemed likely to struggle were backed up from behind a curtain to shield their view of the device.

In 1933 Adolf Hitler had a guillotine constructed and tested. He was impressed enough to order 20 more constructed and pressed into immediate service.^[3] Nazi records indicate that between 1933 and 1945, 16,500 people were executed in Germany and Austria by this method.^[3] In Nazi Germany, beheading by guillotine was the usual method of executing convicted criminals as opposed to political enemies, who were usually^{[citation needed]} either hanged or shot. By the middle of the war, however, policy changed: the six members of the White Rose anti-Nazi resistance organisation were beheaded in 1943, as were a hundred or more conscientious objectors from that date, including Franz Jägerstätter, beheaded in Berlin on 9 August, 1943. The last execution in what would later become West Germany took place on 11 May, 1949, when 24-year-old Berthold Wehmeyer was beheaded in Moabit prison, West Berlin, for murder and robbery. When West Germany was formed in 1949, its constitution prohibited the death penalty; East Germany abolished it in 1987, and Austria in 1968.

In Sweden, where beheading was the mandatory method of execution, the guillotine was used only once, for the very last execution in the country, in 1910 at Långholmen Prison, Stockholm.

In South Vietnam, after the Diệm regime enacted the 10/59 Decree in 1959, mobile special military courts dispatched to the countryside to intimidate the rural peoples used guillotines belonging to the former French colonial power to carry out death sentences on the spot.^[15] One such guillotine is still on show at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.^[16]

Living heads

Execution of Languille in 1905

From its first use, there has been debate as to whether the guillotine always provided as swift a death as Guillotin hoped. With previous methods of execution, there was little concern about the suffering inflicted. As the guillotine was invented specifically to be "humane", however, the issue was seriously considered. Furthermore, there is the possibility that the very swiftness of the guillotine only prolonged the victim's suffering. The blade cuts quickly enough so that there is relatively little impact on the brain case, and perhaps less likelihood of immediate unconsciousness than with a more violent decapitation, or long-drop hanging.

Audiences to guillotinings told numerous stories of blinking eyelids, speaking, moving eyes, movement of the mouth, even an expression of "unequivocal indignation" on the face of the decapitated Charlotte Corday when her cheek was slapped. Anatomists and other scientists in several countries have tried to perform more definitive experiments on severed human heads as recently as 1956. Inevitably, the evidence is only anecdotal. What appears to be a head responding to the sound of its name, or to the pain of a pinprick, may be only random muscle twitching or automatic reflex action, with no awareness involved. At worst, it seems that the massive drop in cerebral blood pressure would cause a victim to lose consciousness in several seconds.^[17]

The following report was written by a Dr. Beaurieux, who experimented with the head of a condemned prisoner by the name of Henri Languille, on 28 June 1905:

Here, then, is what I was able to note immediately after the decapitation: the eyelids and lips of the guillotined man worked in irregularly rhythmic contractions for about five or six seconds. This phenomenon has been remarked by all those finding themselves in the same conditions as myself for observing what happens after the severing of the neck …

I waited for several seconds. The spasmodic movements ceased. […] It was then that I called in a strong, sharp voice: "Languille!" I saw the eyelids slowly lift up, without any spasmodic contractions – I insist advisedly on this peculiarity – but with an even movement, quite distinct and normal, such as happens in everyday life, with people awakened or torn from their thoughts.

Next Languille's eyes very definitely fixed themselves on mine and the pupils focused themselves. I was not, then, dealing with the sort of vague dull look without any expression, that can be observed any day in dying people to whom one speaks: I was dealing with undeniably living eyes which were looking at me. After several seconds, the eyelids closed again […].

It was at that point that I called out again and, once more, without any spasm, slowly, the eyelids lifted and undeniably living eyes fixed themselves on mine with perhaps even more penetration than the first time. Then there was a further closing of the eyelids, but now less complete. I attempted the effect of a third call; there was no further movement – and the eyes took on the glazed look which they have in the dead.

—^[18]

Suicides

There have been several incidents in recent years in which people built homemade guillotines to commit suicide.^[19][20][21]

See also

• Henri Désiré Landru
• Eugen Weidmann
• Marcel Petiot
• Bals des victimes
• Decapitation
• Flying guillotine (weapon)
• Plötzensee Prison
• Use of capital punishment by nation
• Use of the Guillotine in Paris

References

Footnotes

1. ^ R. Po-chia Hsia, Lynn Hunt, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, and Bonnie G. Smith, The Making of the West, Peoples and Culture, A Concise History, Volume II: Since 1340, Second Edition (New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007), 664.
2. ^ Robertson, Patrick The Book of Firsts Clarkson Potter, 1974.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Executive Producer Don Cambou. (2001). Modern Marvels: Death Devices. A&E Television Networks. 
4. ^ Edmond-Jean Guérin, "1738–1814 – Joseph-Ignace Guillotin : biographie historique d'une figure saintaise", Histoire P@ssion website, accessed 2009-06-27, citing M. Georges de Labruyère in le Matin, 22 Aug. 1907
5. ^ "Joseph Ignace Guillotin". whonamedit.com. http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/2275.html. Retrieved 2008-03-09. 
6. ^ "Crime Library". National Museum of Crime & Punishment. http://www.crimemuseum.org/library/execution/guillotine.html. Retrieved June 13, 2009. "[I]n 1792, Nicholas-Jacques Pelletier became the first person to be put to death with a guillotine." 
7. ^ "Chase's Calendar of Events 2007", p. 291
8. ^ Scurr, pp. 222–223
9. ^ Abbot, p. 144
10. ^ Pre-1981 penal code, article 12: "Any person sentenced to death shall be beheaded.".
11. ^ Pre-1981 penal code, article 13: "By exception to article 12, when the death penalty is handed for crimes against the safety of the State, execution shall take place by firing squad.".
12. ^ "The Reign of Terror". French Revolution Exhibit. http://www.historywiz.com/terror.htm. 
13. ^ Loi n°81-908 du 9 octobre 1981 portant abolition de la peine de mort
14. ^ Gazet van Mechelen, 8 May 1956
15. ^ Mrs Nguyen Thi Dinh; Mai V. Elliott (1976). No Other Road to Take: Memoir of Mrs Nguyen Thi Dinh. Cornell University Southeast Asia Program. 27. ISBN 087727102X. 
16. ^ Farrara, Andrew J. (2004). Around the World in 220 Days: The Odyssey of an American Traveler Abroad. Buy Books. 415. ISBN 074141838X. 
17. ^ Excerpt from British Medical Journal, Vol 294: February, 1987, quoting Proges Medical of 9 July 1886, on the subject of research into "living heads".
18. '^ Dr. Beaurieux. "Report From 1905". The History of the Guillotine. http://www.guillotine.dk/Pages/30sec.html. Retrieved 2009-02-13. 
19. ^ Guillotine death was suicide, BBC News, 24 April, 2003
20. ^ Dad's suicide by guillotine, The Sun, 3 April 2004
21. ^ Police Find Man's Body, Guillotine In Wooded Area, WDIV Detroit, 12 September 2007

Notations

• Abbott, Jeffery (2007). What a Way to Go. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0312366566. http://books.google.com/books?id=suNPDerI7-kC&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144&dq=Nicolas+Jacques+Pelletier&source=bl&ots=kn4rJ4sFLP&sig=M3gKAHcCKpxiGZ7pDgu0LTFP69U&hl=en&ei=gRE0St2YLMSktgfzh_H4Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#PPA138,M1. Retrieved June 13, 2009. 
• Chase's Calendar of Events 2007. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2007. ISBN 0071468188. http://books.google.com/books?id=-j7ZyqfsS6MC&pg=PA291&lpg=PA291&dq=Nicolas+Jacques+Pelletier&source=bl&ots=E2I78iWHuT&sig=NmB9PSnwnIBaJQQ411dfR9yzzKs&hl=en&ei=BxE0SruqFZiJtgennfD4Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8. Retrieved June 13, 2009. 
• Scurr, Ruth (2007). Fatal Purity. New York: H. Holt. ISBN 0805082611. http://books.google.com/books?id=yLxpgYt4dJcC&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=Nicolas+Jacques+Pelletier&source=bl&ots=-QvUvI_R5S&sig=mJFUIj5o8tYnfV7hqJXV7Vy2dts&hl=en&ei=FhA0SuHNFMmetwew6qmkCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9#PPA222,M1. Retrieved June 13, 2009. 
• Seligman, Edmond (1901) (in French). La Justice en France pendant la Révolution (1789-1792). Plon-Nourrit et cie. http://books.google.com/books?id=Zr4lAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage. 

Further reading

• Gerould, Daniel (1992). Guillotine; Its Legend and Lore. Blast Books. ISBN 0-922233-02-0. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Guillotine

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Guillotine

• The Guillotine Headquarters with a gallery, history, name list, and quiz.
• L'art de bien couper a French site with a quite complete list of guillotined criminals, pictures, history.
• Bois de justice History of the guillotine, construction details, with rare photos (English)
• Video showing the 1939 execution of Eugen Weidmann
• Fabricius, Jørn. "The Guillotine Headquarters". http://www.guillotine.dk/Pages/Guillot.html. 

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - guillotine, faldøkse, skæremaskine, metode til begrænsning af taletid
v. tr. - guillotinere

Nederlands (Dutch)
guillotine, papiersnijmachine, het vaststellen van tijdstip voor stemming (parlement), onthoofden, toepassen van guillotine methode (parlement)

Français (French)
n. - guillotine, massicot (pour papier), (Pol) clôture par tranches
v. tr. - guillotiner, massicoter, (Pol) appliquer la clôture par tranches

Deutsch (German)
n. - Guillotine, Fallbeil, Papierschneidemaschine, Schlagschere, Begrenzung der Beratungszeit
v. - enthaupten, guillotinieren

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - γκιλοτίνα, λαιμητόμος, καρμανιόλα
v. - καρατομώ, αποκεφαλίζω

Italiano (Italian)
ghigliottinare, ghigliottina

Português (Portuguese)
n. - guilhotina (f)

Русский (Russian)
гильотина, резальная машина, гильотинировать, обрезать, срывать парламентскую дискуссию

Español (Spanish)
n. - guillotina
v. tr. - guillotinar, decapitar, descabezar

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - giljotin, diskussionsspärr (parl.), skärmaskin (för papper)
v. - giljotinera, tidsbegränsa (parl.)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
断头台, 切除器, 截断机, 以断头台斩首, 以截断机切

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 斷頭臺, 切除器, 截斷機
v. tr. - 以斷頭臺斬首, 以截斷機切

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 단두대, 토론 시간의 제한, 잘라내는 도구
v. tr. - 단두대로 자르다, (토론을) 끝내다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ギロチン, 断頭台, 裁断機, 討論打ち切り, 討論打切り
v. - 首をギロチンで切る, 打ち切る

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) المقصله, آله لقطع الورق (فعل) يعدم بالمقصله‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מכונת חיתוך, מערפת, גיליוטינה, כלי-ניתוח עם להב מחליק לחיתוך השקדים‬
v. tr. - ‮ערף בגיליוטינה‬

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