April 25, 1792 at the place de Greve in Paris was held the first execution using the guillotine.
Guillotine — machine for the production of the death penalty. It falls under the action of gravity, the axe severs the head of the convict. So, briefly and clearly States it in most encyclopedias. There is a belief that its inventor is a French doctor Joseph Gillotin. However, it is not.
The machine, similar on the device to the guillotine, existed in Germany, England, Italy, Scotland and Persia long before the French revolution. When Joseph Gillotin installed on the place de Greve in Paris its first device, at that moment, she even had another name — “luisetta”. Only later was this machine of death became known as the guillotine, memorializing the name of the doctor.
Why then is it called by the name of the doctor? It’s simple. It is Joseph Gillotin have made real the introduction of new forms of execution. Contrary to the existing legend, which States that Gelatin was almost a maniac, in fact it was a very humane person. And that on humanitarian grounds he so persistently sought the introduction of a new method of execution. After all, pre-existing ways of killing were extremely cruel, sometimes deliberately turning a penalty in the dying torture.
Death on the guillotine did not cause unnecessary suffering to the condemned. After successful tests on cadavers, the new device penalty was put to the test. It happened on April 25 1792, when the guillotine was first demonstrated its effectiveness a crowd of Parisians at the place de Greve. Beheaded her first “client” was Highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier.
As you know, the guillotine was widely used throughout the French revolution, having leveraged the rights to the execution of all segments of contemporary French society. Her heavy knife with the same dispassion sent to the light as the royals and the revolutionaries, who lost the political struggle. When Robespierre it became the symbol of the Jacobin terror, and after it struck off the head of Robespierre himself.
The official instrument of execution, the guillotine remained in France for almost two centuries. Its use was banned in September 1981, when France abolished the death penalty.
