Invention
This beheading machine called the guillotine (also called the maiden), Was designed by French physicist, Joseph Ignance Guillotine for quick painless executions. It is most recallable from the French Revalution in the years 1789-1799. Guillotines are no longer used in france, nor in any other country. The last person executed by the guillotine in france was on september 10, 1977.
The guillotine was named after Joeseph Ignance Guillotine, but the prototype was designed by Antoine Louis and Tobias Schmdit. It was Tobias Schmdit's idea to use an angled blade instead of a straight one, wich made the guillotine much more effective. The guillotine is usually around 14 feet tall. The blade will drop at a speed of 21 feet per secound, and cut through a neck in 0.05 secounds. Joseph Ignance Guillotine was the person to come up with the idea of the guillotine. However, no one belived in Joseph Ignance Guillotines idea and it was turned down. In the year 1792 Antoine Louis thoght that the guillotine should be reconsidered. Tobias schmdit then built the guillotine within a week of starting. |
Other names for the guillotine
Most people reffer to the guillotine as just the guillotine, but has been given many other nicknames. The guillotine was once called the maiden, madame la guillotine, La monte-á-regret (the regretful climb), le becane (the machine), le massacot (the cutter) and le rasior national (the national razor). If you speak any of these languges you may of noticed that they are reffering to the guillotine as a girl. In other languges, everything is either masculine or feminine. In theroy, The French thought that because the guillotine ended in a "ine" making it more feminine, Le guillotine and La guillotine sounded better.
Guillotine Controversy
After the guillotine was invented, there was a debate after what happend to the heads after being executed. Some people said that they saw facial movement of heads, aslo with suprised look on their faces, and some people even reported talking from the victomes of the Guillotine. Scientest would show the decapitated head of the victomes frightening things and see of they can get their face to move. however, that did not work. Latter, Scientest discovered that after being decapitated the victomes may still remain conscience for 4-6 secounds after.
Reign of terror
The Reign of Terror was from June 1973 to July 1974. 16,594 people were executed by the guillotine. The Reign of Terror was designed to keep enemies of gainging ground. However, most people rounded up were just ordinary people. It then got to a point that a person may be executed for saying something critical of the revalutionary goverment. Maximilien Robespeire, one of the leaders of the reign of terror, said "Terror is nothing other than justise, prompt, severe, inflexible". King louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and Arnuad de Lauport were all exucuted during the reign of terror. Maximilien Robesheire became more and more powerfull, and everyone was always in danger.
Guillotine as a child's toy.
The guillotine became very popular child's toy in france. Kids would get miniture guillotine and decapitate toys and small rodents. Some towns forbidded it in fear that it will give children vicious thoughts. Somehow, guillotines ended up on upper class tables to slice bread and fruit. These guillotines were fully operational.
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