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There was a time in history where the death penalty was a public affair. Although this event was nothing short of barbaric there did exist a small group of people that detested this practice. One of those people was Doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin. He saw the barbaric methods used for execution which lead him to the conclusion that the death penalty should be brought to an end. There was a vast distinction that was shown to those of the lesser class and those of the upper class that meet their deaths. This is why the origin of the Guillotine came to be.

Money made the difference and if you had enough it could buy you the chance to be beheaded instead of tied and quartered. Guillotin would rather have abolished the death penalty altogether but instead settled on a more humane way for all to meet death. He would go on to invent a way where people that were sentenced with the death penalty would face death quickly and with dignity.

Beheading devices were not new to some countries such as Germany, Scotland and Persia but again they were only used for aristocrats who had unfortunately been caught doing something that could not be forgiven for. At the time the guillotine was not widely used and was not the ideal solution. During the 1770's Joseph Guillotine invented his version of the guillotine and was helped by Tobias Smith who just happened to be a carpenter and a German engineer. They invented a guillotine that showed much more mercy to its victims.

Guillotine's device had the following criteria. The complete weight of this machine was 1278 pounds. This guillotine could be constructed anywhere with anyone that had knowledge of carpentry. The height of the guillotine was 14 feet. The blade that descended from the top of the guillotine weighed approximately 88.2 pounds. This blade had a drop rate of 21 feet per second and left nothing to chance. When it hit its objective it took 2/100th of a second for the head to be severed from the body. From the start of the movement of the blade to the finish took a 70th of a second. Not a bad alternative to what the French were using at the time.

In 1789 the guillotine did not bring an end to the public spectacle but there was a change for the better. This came by the way of a new law being brought forward which stated that every person that was sentenced to the death penalty from then on would be done by the guillotine. Guillotine did not accomplish abolishing the death penalty but had accomplished in a very big way how the people died. Death was equal for everyone.

The first use of the guillotine took place on April 25th, 1792. Nicolas Jacques Pelletie took his last walk into history to become the first man to be put to death by Guillotin's device. This took place at Place de Greve on the Right Bank in France. This would be the first of many that would follow Pelletie's footsteps. Even Louis XVI would suffer the same fate on January 21st, 1793. The law that Guillotin had help pass held out for the rich as well as the poor.

It is hard to imagine that the machine Guillotin had made so long ago would endure to September 10th, 1977. This is when the last execution of beheading took place in Marseilles, France and the recipient of this dubious honor was Hamida Djandoubi. Since that time France has become more refined in their death penalty and the Guillotine was retired. Although the Guillotine may have been retired its memory will always be a part of our history and for some, not so distant a memory.

Learn more about this author, Betty Carew.
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