Guillotine
A decapitation machine that owes its name to the French physician Joseph- Ignace Guillotin who introduced it in 1789 as a less painful and more compassionate execution method. But it is not a French invention, similar versions were being used in England from the 14th century, and in Italy and Scotland from the 16th century. In France, the first guillotine was used on the 25th of April in 1792 in Place de Grève in Paris, and became soon the symbol of those notorious years of terror.
It has been estimated that during the Revolution between 15,000 and 25,000 people have been beheaded. Among the famous convicts Marie Antoinette and Luis XVI, Queen and King of France.
Later, science discovered that the device did not cause an instant and painless death: a cut head is aware of its fate, the perception vanish after a few seconds. Although many asserted that the guillotine mechanized and dehumanized death, it was used in France till the abolition of death penalty in 1981.
