WEBVTT - Invention Playlist 4: Guillotine 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:13.119 Hey, welcome to Invention. I'm Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:15.800 And you might know Robert and I from our other 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:18.279 show Stuff to Blow your Mind, our other show in 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.439 the house, Stuff Works Network. But today you apparently have 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:26.640 somehow wandered into our brand new Curiosity Store of Inventions, 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:30.280 where we explore human ingenuity for good, for ill all 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:32.680 of the stuff that comes out of our imaginations and 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.159 becomes the technology we use every day or maybe just 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:40.520 read about in history books. Yes, the hallowed halls of technological, systematic, 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.199 and cultural invention, the very human machines, customs, and systems 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.200 that altered the course of history. And today we're talking 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:49.440 about one of the most useful inventions of all time. 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.680 It's got to be the And Robert, before I say it, 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:54.880 do you say it like a French guy's name, or 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.640 like what a fish breathes with? I go with guillotine 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:00.720 because it sounds a little more like an open face 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:03.520 sandwich that way, and also it has the the G 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.039 has more of a sound to it. Yeah, I like 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:10.200 how it sounds kind of like the minotar the guillotine. 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:15.520 But but apparently guillotine in English is also somewhat acceptable pronunciation. 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.640 I don't think there's a firm ruling one way or 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:21.560 another from the lords of English pronunciation. Now, one thing 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.000 is for certain as we we venture into this world 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:28.000 of the guillotine. Beheadings themselves are just a time honored 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.880 way for one human being to kill another. It's a 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.560 wound that still can't be repaired, and it is without 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:37.319 question certain death. Now, one thing I was thinking about 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:40.120 to illustrate this is what would you even say is 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.920 the quote cause of death in a beheading so well, 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:47.280 blood loss, loss of oxygen to the brain. Basically, it 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:49.880 just cuts off. It cuts off your all your plumbing 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:53.720 systems from all of your your your your thinking systems. Yeah, 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:55.840 it makes it makes you think about how often when 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.400 you hear phrases like clinically dead that can refer to 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.920 something about circulation, like this sation of the heartbeat. Um. 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:04.840 But yeah, so when you separate the head from the body, 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:06.960 I guess you've got to be really rigorous about what 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.400 you mean by dead, though I guess it also happens 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:11.040 pretty quickly so you don't have to worry about it 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:13.440 too much. But yeah, all the blood comes out of 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.000 the head immediate loss of blood pressure, which means the 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:19.520 brain can't get oxygen, which means the brain can't work. Yeah, 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.280 and it's something that's just cemented in our mythology as well, right, 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:23.760 I mean, you want to kill a vampire, you wanna 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.240 kill a medusa, you want to kill a highlander, what 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.520 do you do? You cut their head off? There is 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.320 something just supernaturally potent about this form of death. Well, 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:34.320 I think that's absolutely true, and you see that in 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:38.240 a lot of archaeological finds of beheadings from human history. Like, 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.359 here's a kind of strange fact. A lot of times 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:45.480 when you find beheaded humans from ages past, there appears 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:50.440 to be evidence that the people were beheaded posthumously. Why 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:52.960 did that happen? There are a lot of ways you 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:55.000 could explain it. I mean that you would take a 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:57.360 dead person and cut off their head. Maybe there's some 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.960 sort of ritual function going on here, might be human sacrifice. 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:05.560 Maybe there's some kind of symbolic form of justice being done, 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:07.960 if it's the corps of a criminal or an enemy 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:10.120 or something. But a lot of times it appears like 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.359 it might be a form of apotropaic magic, the kind 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:16.320 of magic you would use to ward off evil or 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:18.919 bad spirits in the same way that you might find 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:22.440 a skeleton from hundreds of years ago with an iron 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:24.760 rod driven through its hard or with a brick in 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:28.120 its mouth, and say the tombs underneath Venice. Yeah, there's 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.959 like a dismantling of the the individual that that seems 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:34.760 evident in these acts um you know, and we see 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:40.240 acts of ritual decapitation dating back thousands of years. For instance, 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:42.520 there's evidence in Brazil that dates back to at least 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:46.200 nine thousand BC, and it's uh. In it we find 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:50.520 a human skull draped and amputated, hands palm side down, 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.720 covering the face as if as if in grief. That's 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:57.120 from place called Lapa Dosanto in uh in South America 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.960 and Brazil, and a lot of bones have been discovered there. 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:02.640 And it's not always easy to determine how to read 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:06.000 the intention behind what you see in these people, but that, yeah, 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.840 there were all kinds of forms of of apparently posthumous 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:12.640 mutilation going on in the way these bones are arranged. 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:17.080 For example, sometimes you'll find skulls they're full of finger 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.960 bones inside the skulls. What was going on? What made 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:22.800 the people want to do that? It seems like it 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:26.200 may well have formed some kind of magical intention, but 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:29.440 what was it? Indeed, we can only guess now. Another 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.960 kind of significance that beheading has often had in the 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:35.440 ancient world was that it was one of the many 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.080 forms of execution practiced, of course in ancient Greece and Rome. Uh. 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:43.800 And in fact, our terms decapitation and capital punishment both 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:46.640 come from the Latin from capit meaning head, so like 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:50.479 capital punishment is punishment of the head, or that you 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:52.680 you pay, you pay for a crime with your head 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.880 by separating it from the other stuff. Uh. And there's 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.479 some evidence that the ancient Greeks and Romans viewed beheading 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.560 is not a particularly harsh punishment, but more as a 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:07.960 particularly noble and honorable form of execution. And you see 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.839 strains of this thinking carried into much more recent times, 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.200 like when beheading was deployed as an execution method throughout 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.080 the history of England. Not always, but it was most 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:21.400 often reserved for the aristocracy, while common criminals might more 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.040 often be killed in what was considered a less dignified 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:28.919 way like hanging. Yeah, I mean, obviously, beheadings in general 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.919 have probably been occurring as long as we've had weapons 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:37.040 fine enough to inflict the blow. Uh, you know, as 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:39.320 long as we had, you know, something that could knock 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:41.640 or cut a head off. And then when you start 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.719 looking at these, uh, the the use of the of 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.360 of a sword or an axe and execution, A lot 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:50.440 of it comes down to the craftsmanship of that weapon, 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.960 but also the skill of the individual using it. Yeah, 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.600 that's that's a real kicker, isn't it. I Mean, when 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:58.880 you contract somebody to do a job for you, a 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.080 lot of times if you don't have a previous relationship 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:02.760 with them, you know, you don't know what kind of 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:04.760 work they're gonna do. You want to find those people 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.240 you can trust, but it's hard to find a trustworthy 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:09.880 executioner that you know is going to cut your head 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.040 off right right, Like i' you really gotta put yourself 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:15.520 in the in the shoes of the condemned here right. Uh. 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:17.360 You know, obviously you don't want to be stoned to death. 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:18.839 You know, you don't want to be thrown into that 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.680 burlap sack with two wild animals and thrown into the river. 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.280 You would probably prefer a nice clean beheading, but nobody 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:30.280 wants a less than perfect beheading. If the local warlord 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.640 is doing it, you know, that's one thing. Uh, you know, unless, however, 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.120 you're worried about the war lord inflicting an intentionally less 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.840 than perfect stroke, you know, out of personal malice. If 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:44.040 if it's a professional executioner that's doing the honors, well 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.720 that's either really good or really bad, depending on how 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:48.680 you look at it. Like the idea of a trained 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.839 specialist doing the deed, that sounds good. But on the 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.440 other hand, at death via the sort of person who 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.160 either seeks this line of work out or is not 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:00.480 suited for any other form of labor, that's a little 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:04.040 uh frightening, I would say. Plus, do you really want 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:06.920 to be toward the bottom of an executioner's list for 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:10.600 the day after they're tired from swinging that big old axe, 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.840 like it's your turn on Friday afternoon? Yeah, like you 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:15.480 kind of I want to be up there. I would 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:17.240 want to be up there first. Let me get that 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:19.680 that first blow in on me. I must admit, I 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.480 don't think I had ever much considered the horrors of 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.880 a weak strike from the executioner until Game of Thrones 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.320 came around, and then that I suddenly began to think, 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:32.640 like oh yes, this could go very wrong. But George rr. 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:36.160 Martin did not make up this concept obviously, of of 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:39.200 being weak at swinging the executioner sword or the axe. 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:43.000 History is replete with stories of botch to be headings, 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:46.680 and they are horrific and unfortunately sometimes kind of funny. 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:48.960 I want to tell you a couple. Uh, this one's 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:53.640 not so funny. And this concerns Mary, the Queen of Scots. 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.920 So during the reign of Protestant Queen Elizabeth the First 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.560 of England in the sixteenth century, there was obviously a 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:03.600 lot of anxiety about succession because Elizabeth had been born 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:06.520 to King Henry the Eighth and his second wife Anne 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:10.320 Boleyn after Henry's first marriage to Catherine e Verragon had 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.080 been annulled, and obviously lots of people at the time, 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:18.080 especially some Catholics, had opinions about that right. And Elizabeth's 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:21.600 cousin Mary Stewart was born to James the Fifth of Scotland, 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:25.040 who was descended from a legitimate royal line, and so 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.320 many Catholic supporters thought, well, maybe Mary actually has a 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.560 more legitimate claim to the throne than Elizabeth does, and 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:35.679 so Mary was eventually implicated in an assassination plot against 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.679 Elizabeth in fifteen eighty six, at least she was allegedly 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.440 involved in it, and she was sentenced to execution in 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:45.280 fifty seven. So you've got Mary Stewart, Mary Queen of Scott's, 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.240 going to her execution and the story goes that she's 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.840 blindfolded and she gets helped to the block and the executioner, 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.880 wearing all black, raises up his axe to kill her, 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:58.920 but instead of cutting through her neck, he misses and 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:01.080 he hits her on the head head and then some 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.880 report that she murmurs Sweet Jesus in shock before the 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:08.360 executioner raises his acts a second time and then strikes 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.319 again and still fails to cut her head off completely. 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.120 And finally he quote just sawed through what remained of 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:20.240 her neck. That's that's that's rough for Mary. Yeah, and 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:24.240 this is you know, this is presumed main event beheading here. 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.760 So right, this is before a royal audience, right, so 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.160 this would have to be either an act of just 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:32.720 just just an utterly inept executioner or one that is 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.040 intentionally doing a bad job out of mouth. It's like 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.199 there seems to be very little room in between. It's 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.960 hard to understand what happened here, because you know, we 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:42.040 only have accounts from the time, which may not even 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:45.120 be fully reliable. We're relying on what people told us 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:47.840 they saw there, right, and there could be some objective 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.480 in crafting a version of the tale that sounds more 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:53.360 inapt than it actually was. But it actually gets worse 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:57.559 because apparently so. It's described sometimes that the executioner appeared 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:59.880 horrified at what was going on, but the head's my 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:02.160 After he got her head off, he took hold of 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.440 the severed head and he held it up in front 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:06.120 of the crowd so he could hold up the severed 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.480 head and say, God save Queen Elizabeth. But he grasped 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:11.720 Mary's head by the hair, and it turned out the 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.760 hair was a wig, so the head fell down and 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.600 rolled away, leaving him holding only a hacked up, bloody 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.720 wig while proclaiming his true queen. And then another part 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.360 of the story, maybe maybe not to be believed, is 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.240 that after Mary's head rolled away, her lips kept moving 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:29.800 as if she was talking or praying. Okay, some of 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:31.600 that sounds like it might have been embellished, but it 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:33.440 also sounds like this guy was a real hack no 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.280 pun intended. Well, I got an even worse hack for you, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:40.679 because there was a seventeenth century English executioner named Jack 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.880 Catch Catch spelled like catch up, catch yeah, or like 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:49.280 what's the kid in the Pokemon's. I have no idea. 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:54.480 Our very knowledgeable producer Paul just tells me it is 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.800 Ash catch him, Okay, I guess he's got to catch him, 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.480 all right. It's like Jack Ketch him right, the hard writer. 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:02.600 That's what comes to my mind. I don't well anyway, 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.280 this is Jack Ketch K E T C H so 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:09.240 Jack Ketch birthday unknown died in sixteen eighty six, who 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.320 was notorious for being a complete screw up at his 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:17.559 job and bungling executions. A couple of examples. In sixteen 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:20.960 eighty three, Ketch performed the beheading of William Lord Russell, 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:24.160 who was convicted for treason in his role of in 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:26.640 his role in the Rye House plot, which was against 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.000 King Charles the Second of England, and Catches beheading of 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.880 Russell was reportedly just this clumsy horror, with Catch whacking 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.320 Russell again and again with the axe, but repeatedly failing 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:40.160 to get his head off, and apparently after this Catch 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:44.600 defended himself by complaining that Russell wouldn't hold still, And 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:48.480 then you got the second one. Later, James, Duke of Monmouth, 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.360 he went to the block for the Monmouth Rebellion of 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.679 sixteen eighty five, and he tried to pay Catch not 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:58.640 to screw up his execution. He's recorded as saying, quote, 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:02.200 here are six guinea for you. Pray, do your business well. 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:04.800 Do not serve me as you did my lord Russell. 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:07.680 I have heard you struck him three or four times. 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:11.000 Then Monmouth gave three more guineas to his servant who 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.080 was standing nearby, and told his servant to pay Catch 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.439 only if Ketch did the beheading correctly, and then Catch 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:22.360 said I hope I shall. Then Monmouth asked to feel 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:24.920 the axe blade, and he did, and he complained that 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.640 this is too dull, and Ketch said, no, it's sharp enough, 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.920 it'll be heavy enough. So Monmouth got down in place 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.439 to accept his fate, and Catch brought the axe down 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.520 on Monmouth. And at this point it is reported that 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.440 after he got hit, Monmouth lifted his head up and 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:46.680 turned around and glared at Ketch angrily. Then he got 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.480 back down so Ketch could hit him again, and Catch 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.200 hit him several more times, failing each time to be 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:55.320 head him. Then Catch got frustrated and tried to walk 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.800 away and quit in the middle of the execution while 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.600 Monmouth was still alive. But the crowd out yelled at 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:02.400 him and told him to go back and finish it. 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:05.640 So finally he went back. After some more blows uh 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:07.920 and the use of a knife, he finally managed to 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:11.040 get the duke's head off. Well that's awful, Like, this 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.480 guy is a true hack. I wonder if that's where 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.760 the word hack comes from. Perhaps, Uh yeah, but so 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.320 you had people whose job it was to administer what 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:22.680 I guess was supposed to be the more humane form 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:24.720 of execution at the time. I mean, this is different 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:28.480 than being you know, uh, tortured and hanged and drawn 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:31.960 and quartered and all that. But he this is obviously 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:34.640 not going the way it's supposed to. And if we're 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.000 going inspired by the Greek and Roman model, something is 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.720 obviously wrong here. Like not only is it unnecessarily painful, 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:43.199 this does not really seem like an honorable death. This 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:47.200 seems humiliating. Yeah, there's nothing noble about this, you know, 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:50.960 it's this is not a finely craft instrument wielded by 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.360 a by and by an expert practitioner. This is just 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:59.520 a clumsy exercise and horror. But what if mechanical controls 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:03.240 could be said at in place the same level of perfection, 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:06.559 regardless of whoever you know happens to be wearing the hood, 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.440 how tired they are, what sort of weapon they're using, 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.880 or what sort of six stuff they're into. A machine 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.439 that cannot get tired, It can't hesitate or engage in 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:21.640 unfair punishment. It's not gonna judge you based on your 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:26.359 your royal or commoner status. A good blade, some gravity, 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.320 and a simple frame with a necklock, well that would 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.120 be the guillotine. All right, We're gonna take a quick break, 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.040 and when we come back we will discuss some precursors 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:44.920 to the guillotine and the guillotine itself. All right, we're back. 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:48.920 So the guillotine of late eighteenth century France, which I'm 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.240 sure you've heard about before, that was involved in the 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.640 French Revolution, the Reign of Terror, the first French Republic. 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:59.240 That guillotine was not the first human head removal machine, 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:01.440 not by a long shot. And we're not saying it was. 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:03.840 You know that it was predated by people swinging in 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:05.920 axe or a sword with their hands, of course it was. 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:10.040 But there were organized machines for doing this job more 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:14.040 efficiently and in a more consistent way before the guillotine 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.080 was instituted in France, right, and and they worked along 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:19.720 the same principles. They maybe they weren't quite as refined, 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:24.160 but essentially the idea was there that we should say that. 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:26.760 It was only in the aftermath of the French Revolution 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:30.880 that people began referring to decapitation machines as guillotines. That's 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.400 where the name comes from. Yes, they had equally less 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.160 refined names. They had more grizzly names. One fines. We'll 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:40.840 meet a couple in a moment. So as for who 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.920 invented the first general decapitation machine, this is totally unknown, 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:47.520 lost to history, and in fact, we don't even know 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.760 for sure how many societies used a device like this. 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:52.720 There There are a lot of tales, but many of 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:54.920 these tales might not even be true. We don't know 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:57.239 for sure. Right and then how often is the individual 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:02.040 uh celebrated for creating such a thing? As we'll discover 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.600 the naming of the guillotine, It doesn't really relate to 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.840 the individual or individuals that created it, right. I mean, 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:12.280 a lot of people who create execution devices don't want 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.240 to be associated with And when you find the people 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:17.360 who do want to be associated with them or don't mind, 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:19.200 you've got to kind of wonder about those people. But 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.200 um So, there are a couple of known mechanical beheading 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:27.120 devices from England that predated the French guillotine, and one 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:31.360 is known as the Halifax Gibbet. So the how Halifax 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:33.560 is a town in West Yorkshire in England, and it 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.920 had this infamous beheading machine known as the Halifax Gibbet, 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.640 which was allegedly used mostly to punish petty theft. So 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.520 people would steal some small sum of money or something 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:47.280 worth not very much, some cloth or something, and into 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:51.440 the Halifax Gibbet they would go. It was described in 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:54.440 an eighteen thirty seven history by an author named William 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:58.600 White in the following way quote. The executions always took 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:01.240 place on the Great Mark at day in order to 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.760 strike the more terror into the neighborhood. When the criminal 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.080 was brought to the gibbet, which stood a little way 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:09.720 out of the town where part of the stone platform 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.000 may still be seen on Gibbet Hill. The execution was 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.040 performed by means of an engine, which was raised upon 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:20.000 a platform four ft high and thirteen feet square, faced 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.720 on every side with stone, and ascended by a flight 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:25.840 of steps. In the middle of this platform was placed 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:29.639 two upright pieces of timber fifteen feet high, joined at 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:33.000 the top by a transverse beam. Within these was a 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.439 square block of wood four feet and a half long, 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.480 which moved up and down by means of grooves made 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:41.800 for that purpose. To the lower part of the sliding 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:45.040 block was fastened in iron axe of the weight of 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.600 seven pounds and twelve ounces. The axe, thus fixed, was 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:51.520 drawn up to the top by a cord and pulley. 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:53.600 At the end of the cord was a pin, which, 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.840 being fixed to the block, kept it suspended till the 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:00.200 moment of execution. When the culprit, having placed his head 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:02.960 on the block, the pin was withdrawn and his head 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.399 was instantly severed from his body. If the offender was 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.560 condemned for stealing an ox, a sheep, or a horse, 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.280 the end of the rope was fastened to the beast, which, 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:17.919 being driven, pulled out the pin and thus became the executioner. 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:20.960 In other cases, the bailiff for his servant cut the 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.320 rope and allowed the axe to descend. It's a little 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:29.040 unnecessary complexity involving fim animals, but otherwise the basic principles 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:30.960 of the guillotine as we've come to know it. Yeah, 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:33.159 it's more or less there there. There might be some 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.879 design refinements we come on later, but this is the idea. 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.320 It's it's a reliable, consistent machine that's not going to 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:42.919 mess up. Right. And of course it doesn't sound like 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.399 it was necessarily a custom blade, or maybe it was, 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:47.320 but it's very much based on the design of an 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:50.720 axe blade. Yeah. And when you see illustrations, it looks 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:53.159 like just a large axe head on the bottom of 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:56.560 a huge wooden block. Uh So, this beheading machine of 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:00.000 Halifax was famous enough that the English poet John Taylor 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:04.960 are referenced it alongside the notoriously tough police of Kingston 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:07.800 upon Hull in a poem uh that that I thought 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:10.679 was pretty good. He writes, there is a proverb and 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:14.000 a prayer withal that we may not to Three strange 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:19.120 places fall from Hull, from Halifax, from Hell. 'tis thus 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:23.440 from all these three, good Lord deliver us at Halifax. 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:26.520 The law so sharp doth deal that whoso more than 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:30.600 one threepence doth steal. They have a lynn that wondrous, 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:34.280 quick and well, since thieves all headless unto Heaven or Hell. 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:38.280 From Hell, each man says, Lord, deliver me, because from 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:42.040 Hell can no redemption be. Men may escape from Hull 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.879 and Halifax, but sure in Hell there is a heavier tax. 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:48.880 It sounds pretty good. Well. I like how it's sort 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.159 of captures two themes there. One is that how the 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:55.359 Halifax jibbit is deadly and something to be feared, but 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.840 it also contrasts it with the supposed tortures of Hell. 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:01.760 I guess again in a sizing that, well, it's not 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:04.600 as torturous as many of the other methods that are 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.320 being used. Yeah, he's almost describing it like it's a 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:12.720 like it's a plane ticket to to greater rewards or suffering, 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:17.040 depending on how one supernatural revenge fantasy is playing out here. 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:19.560 But on the other hand, I like that it is 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:24.040 to a certain extent farm animals. Uh, you know. Notwithstanding, 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:28.520 it is to a certain extent saving the horrors of 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:32.520 an afterlife for those imagined afterlife and not trying to 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:37.640 um embody them too much in the act of execution itself. Yeah. Now, 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:39.920 whether that's actually a good thing or not, we can 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:42.679 discuss later, but it does seem to be there's at 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:47.240 least there's at least a superficial kind of humaneness to write, 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:49.720 even though it seems to be being lumped on people 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:53.800 who commit extremely pent crimes and not and no matter 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:58.080 what you think, really probably deserving of death. But there's 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:02.080 some strange stories about how people reacted to what happened 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.200 with at the Halifax gibbet. The story in Thomas Wright 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:08.719 tells a legend quote of a countrywoman who was writing 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.800 by the gibbet on her hampers to the market just 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:14.560 at the execution of a criminal when the acts chopped 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.959 his neck through with such force that the head jumped 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.240 into one of her hampers, or as others say, seized 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.879 her apron with the teeth and they're stuck for some time. 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:28.600 I don't believe that's true, or at least the teeth 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:30.840 I don't believe. Again, we're coming back to the sort 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:35.760 of inherent comedy. I mean, it's true gallows humor, uh 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:40.480 that comes with beheading executions. But there's an interesting observation 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:44.400 from the Halifax historian John Crabtree, who has a sort 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:48.359 of attitude about what stories like this mean. He writes, quote, 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:51.199