Guillotine
Guillotina
- Date
- 1792 · confidence high
- Place
- Place de Grève, Paris, France
- Credited to
- Antoine Louis (design) and Tobias Schmidt (construction), based on a proposal by Joseph-Ignace Guillotin
- Field
- Conflict
What it is
Physician Guillotin proposed to the Assembly a mechanical method of beheading applied equally to every condemned person, regardless of class; surgeon Antoine Louis designed it and German maker Tobias Schmidt built it. It was first used on 25 April 1792.
It drew on earlier beheading machines such as the English Halifax Gibbet and the Scottish Maiden; Antoine Louis died the same year it debuted.
What it led to
- A symbol of the Terror and the French Revolution
- Standardization of capital punishment in France until 1977
- Debate over pain and dignity in execution