by Jane Allyson

Created on: July 18, 2008   Last Updated: December 18, 2010

The guillotine was actually created in the late 1700's as a more humane form of execution as an interim step towards banning the death penalty in France altogether.

Doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin belonged to a political reform group that relentlessly campaigned to have the death penalty abolished altogether, yet it wasn't until September 10, 1977, that the final execution by guillotine took place, when the murderer, Hamida Djandoubi was beheaded in Marseilles, France.

Execution during the 1700's consisted of a public gathering where the victim was hung, drawn and quartered or ripped apart by being tied to four oxen all driven in the opposite direction. Other forms of execution included being broken on the wheel or burnt at the stake. The only way a criminal could avoid such a horrible end was to "buy" their way into the less painful death of beheading or hanging, a choice only afforded by the upper classes.

Although beheading devices were already in use in other parts of the world for the more aristocratic criminal, Doctor Guillotin collaborated with German engineer and harpsichord maker Tobias Schmidt to perfect a beheading machine that would do the job as quickly and painlessly as possible, notably by using a diagonal blade instead of a round blade.

Further improvements were made to the design in 1870 by Leon Berger, an assistant executioner and carpenter. He added a spring system, a lock/blocking device at the lunette and a new release mechanism for the blade.

In 1789 begun the rout of the French Revolution and the storming of the Bastille, with King Louis XVI of France being arrested and imprisoned. He was captured by revolutionaries at Varennes after he tried to free prison two years later, and the guillotine sealed his fate shortly thereafter.

The guillotine was at its busiest during this period, with most of the elite of French society sent to their deaths alongside ordinary criminals. The luxury of a quick and relatively painless death was now available to every civilian and not just the French aristocracy.

Nicolas Jacques Pelletie had the dubious honor of being the first person to be guillotined at Place de Grve on the Right Bank on April 25, 1792, following with the execution of 1,225 people during May 1793 to June 1794.

Political offenders were afforded a different venue and were executed at the Place de Carrousel.

It was erected at the Place de la Revolution for the execution of King Louis XVI, who was beheaded on the 21st of January 1793. Marie

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