You might well think it was France but not so. Halifax produced this efficient killing machine. It was known as the Halifax gibbet. Two 15 foot poles guided a blade weighted by lead blast which was raised by block and tackle. Between 1286 and 1650 50 people were executed there. The burghers of Halifax, grown rich through the cloth trade felt they needed an effective deterrent to theft of the died material left drying in the open air.
This and a later Scottish device called the Maiden may have influence the French. Monsieur Guillotin was in fact a mild mannered man who detested capital punishment. His involvement was in suggesting the device as a fair and efficient device for execution. The poor were hanged messily and the rich only slightly better dispatched by beheading. Guillotin's suggestion was taken up by Dr Antoine Louis who devised the first operating device with its diagonal blade in 1792. In some way Guillotin's name became associated with it.
Incidentally he was not killed by it but died from an infected carbuncle in 1814.
This and a later Scottish device called the Maiden may have influence the French. Monsieur Guillotin was in fact a mild mannered man who detested capital punishment. His involvement was in suggesting the device as a fair and efficient device for execution. The poor were hanged messily and the rich only slightly better dispatched by beheading. Guillotin's suggestion was taken up by Dr Antoine Louis who devised the first operating device with its diagonal blade in 1792. In some way Guillotin's name became associated with it.
Incidentally he was not killed by it but died from an infected carbuncle in 1814.
