guillotine

     

The guillotine (pronounce /ˈgijətin/ or /ˈgɪlətin/ in English; [gijɔtin] in French) was a device used for carrying out executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which a heavy blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the victim's head from his or her 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. The guillotine also "became a part of popular culture, celebrated as the people's avenger by supporters of the Revolution and vilified as the preeminent symbol of the Terror by opponents."

Trivia about guillotine

  • On April 25, 1792 Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier became the first person in history to have a bad encounter with this
  • In an 1859 novel, Charles Dickens called this object "the sharp female newly-born"
  • Introduced during the Revolution, this execution device was last used in France in 1977
  • In the late 1700s a French doctor proposed a mechanical device for lopping off heads & voila -- this was named for him
  • The last public execution by this method took place on June 17, 1939 in Versailles, France
  • Don't lose your head trying to name this execution device named after a French doctor
  • Its use was abolished in France in 1981, 188 years too late for Marie Antoinette
  • "Dialogues Des Carmelites" ends in 1790s Paris, so it's no surprise when much of the cast is killed with this device
  • In 1977 a Tunisian immigrant became the last prisoner in France to be executed with this device
  • Charlotte Corday,1793
  • (Kelly of the Clue Crew watches ropes of candy be split on the conveyor belt at the See's candy factory.) As the candy moves down the conveyor belt, a splitter cuts it into ropes, & this French-named device cuts it to a certain length
  • Because it operates like an old execution device, your average paper cutter also goes by this name
  • Ironically, this 18th century device bears the name of a French doctor who opposed the death penalty
  • It didn't make French rolls, it made French heads roll
  • P.G. Wodehouse defined it as the "only one real cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman"
  • A tumbrel, a farm tipcart used to haul manure, was used to haul people to this during the French Revolution
  • Robespierre lost his head on one of these July 28, 1794
  • The last of Andre Chenier's moving poems "Iambes" date from just before his death by this in July 1794
  • In the 1790s France recaptured Guadeloupe & introduced this bloody device there
  • In 1793 the Committee of Public Safety would try people & execute them by this method all in the same day
  • Don't lose your head: this French device shares its name with an instrument for surgically removing tonsils

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