Guillotine (1791)
Guillotine proposes a machine for humane decapitation. In 1789, at the start of the French Revolution, Joseph-Ignace Guillotine (1738-1814), a medical doctor of progressive views, proposed a thorough-going reform of the French penal system. Inspired by the humane and rational principles of the Enlightenment, Guillotin's proposals included in single method of execution to replace the massy horrors of breaking on the wheel and hanging by the neck. Guillotin's mechanism would prevent suffering, while making capital punishment more democratic; beheading was traditionally the punishment reserved for aristocrats-an efficient decapitation machine would spread that privilege to all classes. In 1791 the French National Assembly appointed a committee to push the project through. Although Guillotin was involved, the prime mover was Dr. Antoine Louis, Royal Physician and Secretary of the Academy of Surgery. The basic design adopted, with a blade hauled to the top of a high