WEBVTT - Invention: The Guillotine 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:02.640 Hey everybody, this is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:05.080 Can say, we're bringing you a special treat, an episode 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:09.200 of our brand new other podcast, Invention. That's right. It 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:13.360 is an exploration of human techno history, one invention at 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:17.840 a time, new inventions, old inventions, ancient inventions. Each episode 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.800 a different exploration. We're so excited about this new show. 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:22.920 We think you're gonna love it. We really hope you do. 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:26.279 But the really important thing is don't just listen to 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.840 this episode. Go wherever you can and click subscribe. Get 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.960 yourself subscribed so you will get future episodes when they 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.800 come out, and they will be publishing every Monday. 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Don't 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:04.759 just listen, subscribe, that's right, And the gift we're giving 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:07.520 you is this episode about the guillotine, and so much 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:09.039 more to come, like there's gonna be an episode on 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.319 sunglasses in the future, an episode on roads. I'm hoping 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:14.840 to do one on the saxophone. The sky is the limit. 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:16.800 And then of course you guys will get to inform 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.479 what we're recording as well, so we hope you enjoy 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:32.640 our exploration of the guillotine. Hey, welcome to Invention. I'm 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:35.480 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And you might know 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:38.720 Robert and I from our other show Stuff to Blow 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.319 your Mind, our other show in the How Stuff Works Network. 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:45.440 But today you apparently have somehow wandered into our brand 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:50.160 new Curiosity Store of Inventions, where we explore human ingenuity 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.080 for good, for ill, all of the stuff that comes 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:56.360 out of our imaginations and becomes the technology we use 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.640 every day or maybe just read about in history books. Yes, 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:03.400 the how load halls of technological, systematic and cultural invention, 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.880 the very human machines, customs and systems that altered the 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:09.359 course of history and today we're talking about one of 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:11.560 the most useful inventions of all time. It's got to 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.640 be the and Robert. Before I say it, do you 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:17.240 say it like a French guy's name, or like what 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.720 a fish breathes with? I go with guillotine because it 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.320 sounds a little more like an open face sandwich that way, 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:25.880 and also it has the the gee has more of 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.320 a sound to it. Yeah, I like how it sounds 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:33.120 kind of like the minotar the guillotine. But but apparently 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:37.760 guillotine in English is also somewhat acceptable pronunciation. I don't 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.840 think there's a firm ruling one way or another from 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.480 the lords of English pronunciation. Now, one thing is for 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.480 certain as we we ventured into this world of the guillotine. 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.359 Beheadings themselves are just a time honored way for one 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.400 human being to kill another. It's a wound that still 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:57.119 can't be repaired, and it is, without questions, certain death. Now, 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:00.200 one thing I was thinking about to illustrate this is 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:03.280 what would you even say is the quote cause of 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.720 death in a beheading so well, blood loss, loss of 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:10.200 oxygen to the brain. Basically, it just cuts off. It 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:12.600 cuts off your all your plumbing systems from all of 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.840 your your your your thinking systems. Yeah, it makes it 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.280 makes you think about how often when you hear phrases 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.200 like clinically dead, that can refer to something about circulation, 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.240 like the cessation of the heartbeat. Um. But yeah, so 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:26.880 when you separate the head from the body, I guess 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:29.040 you've got to be really rigorous about what you mean 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:31.640 by dead though I guess it also happens pretty quickly 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:33.120 so you don't have to worry about it too much. 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.440 But yeah, all the blood comes out of the head, 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.200 immediate loss of blood pressure, which means the brain can't 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.280 get oxygen, which means the brain can't work. Yeah, and 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:43.960 it's something that's just cemented in our mythology as well, right, 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:45.400 I mean, you want to kill a vampire, you wanna 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:47.920 kill a medusa, you want to kill a highlander, what 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:50.160 do you do? You cut their head off? There is 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:54.000 something just supernaturally potent about this form of death. Well, 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.000 I think that's absolutely true, and you see that in 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:59.640 a lot of archaeological finds of beheadings from human history. 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.680 Like here's a kind of strange fact. A lot of 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:06.760 times when you find beheaded humans from ages past, there 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:11.040 appears to be evidence that the people were beheaded posthumously. 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:14.520 Why did that happen? There are a lot of ways 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:16.599 you could explain it. I mean that you would take 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:18.920 a dead person and cut off their head. Maybe there's 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.479 some sort of ritual function going on here, might be 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:25.680 a human sacrifice. Maybe there's some kind of symbolic form 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.560 of justice being done, if it's the corps of a 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:30.880 criminal or an enemy or something. But a lot of 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:32.719 times it appears like it might be a form of 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.440 apotropaic magic, the kind of magic you would use to 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.839 ward off evil or bad spirits, in the same way 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.039 that you might find a skeleton from hundreds of years 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:45.719 ago with an iron rod driven through its hard or 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.080 with a brick in its mouth, and say the tombs 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:51.360 underneath Venice. Yeah, there's like a dismantling of the the 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.719 individual that that seems evident in these acts um you know, 0:04:55.720 --> 0:05:00.760 and we see acts of ritual decapitation dating back thousands 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:03.520 of years. For instance, there's evidence in Brazil that dates 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:06.640 back to at least nine thousand BC, and it's uh. 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.600 In it, we find a human skull draped and amputated, 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:14.280 hands palm side down, covering the face as if as 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.960 if in grief. That's from place called Lapa Dosanto in 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.120 Uh in South America and Brazil, and a lot of 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.760 bones have been discovered there. And it's not always easy 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.880 to determine how to read the intention behind what you 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.640 see in these people. But yeah, there were all kinds 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.920 of forms of of apparently posthumous mutilation going on in 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:35.560 the way these bones are arranged. For example, sometimes you'll 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:40.760 find skulls, they're full of finger bones inside the skulls. 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.320 What was going on? What made the people want to 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:45.480 do that? It seems like it may well have formed 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:49.360 some kind of magical intention, but what was it? Indeed, 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.279 we can only guess now. Another kind of significance that 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.040 beheading has often had in the ancient world was that 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:58.560 it was one of the many forms of execution practiced, 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.320 of course, in ancient Greece and home Uh. And in fact, 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:05.920 our terms decapitation and capital punishment both come from the 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.800 Latin from capit meaning head, so like capital punishment is 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.839 punishment of the head, or that you you pay, you 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:15.240 pay for a crime with your head by separating it 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.400 from the other stuff. And there's some evidence that the 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:23.360 ancient Greeks and Romans viewed beheading as not a particularly 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:27.600 harsh punishment, but more as a particularly noble and honorable 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.680 form of execution, and you see strains of this thinking 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.880 carried into much more recent times, like when beheading was 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.920 deployed as an execution method throughout the history of England. 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.960 Not always, but it was most often reserved for the aristocracy, 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:44.120 while common criminals might more often be killed in what 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:48.800 was considered a less dignified way like hanging. Yeah, I mean, obviously, 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:52.800 beheadings in general have probably been occurring as long as 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:57.320 we've had weapons fine enough to inflict the blow. Uh, 0:06:57.440 --> 0:06:59.800 you know, as long as we had you know, some 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.680 thing that couldn't knock or cut a head off. And 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.760 then when you start looking at these, uh, the use 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.760 of the of of a sword or an axe and execution, 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:10.920 you know, a lot of it comes down to the 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:13.560 craftsmanship of that weapon, but also the skill of the 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:17.800 individual using it. Yeah, that's that's a real kicker, isn't it. 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:19.960 I Mean, when you contract somebody to do a job 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:21.560 for you, a lot of times if you don't have 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:23.920 a previous relationship with them, you know, you don't know 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:25.760 what kind of work they're gonna do you want to 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:27.920 find those people you can trust, but it's hard to 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:30.840 find a trustworthy the executioner that you know is going 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.000 to cut your head off right right, Like you've really 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.560 got to put yourself in the in the shoes of 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.000 the condemned here right. Uh. You know, obviously you don't 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:39.640 want to be stoned to death. You know, you don't 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:41.640 want to be thrown into that burlap sack with two 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.600 wild animals and thrown into the river. You would probably 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:49.040 prefer a nice, clean beheading, but nobody wants a less 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:52.520 than perfect beheading. If the local warlord is doing it, 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.320 you know, that's one thing. Uh, you know, unless, however, 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:58.760 you're worried about the war lord inflicting an intentionally less 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:02.960 than perfect stroke out of personal malice. If if it's 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.280 a professional executioner that's doing the honors, well that's either 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:08.680 really good or really bad, depending on how you look 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.320 at it. Like the idea of a trained specialist doing 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.000 the d that sounds good. But on the other hand, 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:16.840 at death via the sort of person who either seeks 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.520 this line of work out or is not suited for 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:23.640 any other form of labor, that's a little uh frightening. 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:25.960 I would say, Plus, do you really want to be 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.000 toward the bottom of an executioner's list for the day 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.640 after they're tired from swinging that big old axe, like 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.760 it's your turn on Friday afternoon? Yeah, like you kind 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:37.280 of I want to be up there. I would want 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:38.960 to be up there first, let him get that that 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.600 first blow in on me. I must admit I don't 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:44.640 think I'd ever much considered the horrors of a weak 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:48.199 strike from the executioner until Game of Thrones came around, 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.760 and then I suddenly began to think, like, oh, yes, 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.960 this could go very wrong. But George R. Martin did 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.520 not make up this concept obviously, of of being weak. 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.679 It's swinging the execution or sword or the acts. History 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.160 is replete with stories of botched beheadings, and they are 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:08.720 horrific and unfortunately sometimes kind of funny. I want to 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.360 tell you a couple. This one is not so funny. 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:16.200 This concerns Mary, the Queen of Scots. So during the 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:19.160 reign of Protestant Queen Elizabeth the First of England in 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.280 the sixteenth century, there was obviously a lot of anxiety 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:26.040 about succession because Elizabeth had been born to King Henry 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.880 the Eighth and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, after Henry's 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:33.120 first marriage to Catherine of Aragon had been annulled, and 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.160 obviously lots of people at the time, especially some Catholics, 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:41.160 had opinions about that right. And Elizabeth's cousin, Mary Stewart, 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.920 was born to James the fifth of Scotland, who was 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:47.520 descended from a legitimate royal line, and so many Catholic 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:50.920 supporters thought, well, maybe Mary actually has a more legitimate 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.720 claim to the throne than Elizabeth does. And so Mary 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.959 was eventually implicated in an assassination plot against Elizabeth in 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:00.800 fifteen eighty six, at least she was a rigedly involved 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.120 in it, and she was sentenced to execution in seven. 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:07.200 So you've got Mary Stewart, Mary Queen of Scott's, going 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:10.760 to her execution, and the story goes that she's blindfolded 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:13.520 and she gets helped to the block and the executioner, 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.559 wearing all black, raises up his axe to kill her, 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:20.600 but instead of cutting through her neck, he misses and 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.280 he hits her on the head. And then some report 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:27.280 that she murmurs Sweet Jesus in shock before the executioner 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:30.400 raises his ax a second time, and then strikes again 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.559 and still fails to cut her head off completely, and 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.240 finally he quote just sawed through what remained of her neck. 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:42.120 That's that's that's rough for Mary. Yeah, and this is 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:46.560 you know, this is presumed main event beheading here, so right, 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:48.880 this is before a royal audience, right, so this would 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:51.320 have to be either an act of just just just 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:55.440 an utterly inneped executioner or one that is intentionally doing 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:57.160 a bad job out of mouth. It's like there seems 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:59.200 to be very little room in between. It's hard to 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:01.880 under stand what happened here because you know, we only 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:03.840 have accounts from the time, which may not even be 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:07.000 fully reliable. We're relying on what people told us they 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:09.760 saw there, right, And there could be some objective in 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.280 crafting a version of the tale that sounds more in 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.040 apt than it actually was. But it actually gets worse 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:19.240 because apparently so it's described sometimes that the executioner appeared 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.079 horrified at what was going on. But the headsman, after 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:23.920 he got her head off, he took hold of the 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.160 severed head and he held it up in front of 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:28.000 the crowd so he could hold up the severed head 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.560 and say God save Queen Elizabeth. But he grasped Mary's 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:33.559 head by the hair, and it turned out the hair 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.160 was a wig, so the head fell down and rolled away, 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.160 leaving him holding only a hacked up, bloody wig while 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.880 proclaiming his true queen. And then another part of the story, 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.040 maybe maybe not to be believed, is that after Mary's 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.360 head rolled away, her lips kept moving as if she 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:52.000 was talking or praying. Okay, some of that sounds like 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:53.960 it might have been embellished, but it also sounds like 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.400 this guy was a real hack, no pun intended. Well, 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:58.760 I got an even worse hack for you, because there 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.839 was a seventeenth since three English executioner named jack Ketch 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:07.520 catch spelled like ketchup, catch yeah, or like what's the 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:13.200 kid in the Pokemon's. I have no idea. Our very 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:17.160 knowledgeable producer Paul just tells me it is ash ketch Um. 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.280 I guess he's got to catch him, all right. It's 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:22.520 like jack ketch him right, the horror writerer. That's what 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:24.480 comes to my mind. I don't well anyway, this is 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.520 jack Ketch K E T C H so Jack Ketch 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:32.000 birthday unknown died in sixty six, who was notorious for 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:36.559 being a complete screw up at his job and bungling executions. 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:40.959 A couple of examples. In six three, Ketch performed the 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.160 beheading of William, Lord Russell, who was convicted for treason 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:46.760 in his role of in his role in the Rye 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.920 House plot, which was against King Charles the second of England, 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:54.480 and Catches beheading of Russell was reportedly just this clumsy horror, 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:57.480 with Ketch whacking Russell again and again with the axe, 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.880 but repeatedly failing to get his head off. And apparently 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.480 after this, Catch defended himself by complaining that Russell wouldn't 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:09.040 hold still, and then you got the second one. Later, James, 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:11.880 Duke of Monmouth, he went to the block for the 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.439 Monmouth Rebellion of six five, and he tried to pay 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:20.319 Catch not to screw up his execution. He's recorded as saying, quote, 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.880 here are six guineas for you, pray, do your business well. 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.480 Do not serve me as you did my lord Russell. 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.360 I have heard you struck him three or four times. 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.640 Then Monmouth gave three more guineas to his servant who 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.640 was standing nearby, and told his servant to pay Catch 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:40.120 only if Catch did the beheading correctly. And then Catch 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:44.040 said I hope I shall. Then Monmouth asked to feel 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:46.600 the axe blade, and he did, and he complained that 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.320 this is too dull, and Catch said, no, it's sharp enough, 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.600 it'll be heavy enough. So Monmouth got down in place 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:57.120 to accept his fate, and Catch brought the axe down 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:00.200 on Monmouth. And at this point it is reported that 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:03.120 after he got hit, Monmouth lifted his head up and 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:08.360 turned around and glared at Catch angrily. Then he got 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.160 back down so Ketch could hit him again, and Catch 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:13.880 hit him several more times, failing each time to be 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.000 head him. Then Catch got frustrated and tried to walk 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.480 away and quit in the middle of the execution, while 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.400 Monmouth was still alive. But the crowd yelled at him 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:24.440 and told him to go back and finish it, so 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.600 finally he went back. After some more blows and the 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:29.840 use of a knife, he finally managed to get the 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:33.200 duke's head off. Well that's awful, Like this guy is 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.480 a true hack. I wonder if that's where the word 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.800 hat comes from. Perhaps, uh yeah, But so you had 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:42.520 people whose job it was to administer what I guess 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:45.040 was supposed to be the more humane form of execution 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:46.840 at the time. I mean, this is different than being 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.800 you know, uh, tortured and hanged and drawn and quartered 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:54.280 and all that. But he this is obviously not going 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.080 the way it's supposed to. And if we're going inspired 0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:59.640 by the Greek and Roman model, something is obviously wrong 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.560 here at Like, not only is it unnecessarily painful, this 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:06.520 does not really seem like an honorable death. This seems humiliating. Yeah, 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.600 there's nothing noble about this. You know. This is not 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:13.600 a finely craft instrument wielded by a by and by 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:18.080 an expert practitioner. This is just a clumsy exercise and horror. 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:22.240 But what if mechanical controls could be set in place 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:26.880 the same level of perfection, regardless of whoever you know, 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:29.560 happens to be wearing the hood, how tired they are, 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.600 what sort of weapon they're using, or what sort of 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.880 six stuff they're into. A machine that cannot get tired, 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.600 it can't hesitate or engage in unfair punishment. It's not 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:45.560 gonna judge you based on your your royal or commoner status. 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:50.120 A good blade, some gravity, and a simple frame with 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.720 a necklock, well that would be the guillotine. All right, 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:55.760 we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.720 we will discuss some precursors to the guillotine and the 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:08.480 tea itself. Alright, we're back. So the guillotine of late 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:11.760 eighteenth century France, which I'm sure you've heard about before, 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.920 that was involved in the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror, 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:19.240 the first French Republic. That guillotine was not the first 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.240 human head removal machine, not by a long shot. And 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:24.080 we're not saying it was. You know that it was 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:26.400 predated by people swinging in axe or a sword with 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.080 their hands. Of course it was. But there were organized 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:33.120 machines for doing this job more efficiently and in a 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:37.680 more consistent way before the guillotine was instituted in France, right, 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.160 and and they worked along the same principles. They maybe 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:44.160 they weren't quite as refined, but essentially the idea was 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:46.480 there that we should say that it was only in 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.680 the aftermath of the French Revolution that people began referring 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:54.000 to decapitation machines as guillotines. That's where the name comes from. Yes, 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:58.640 they had equally less refined names. They had more grizzly names. 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:01.920 One find. We'll meet a couple in a moment. So 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.560 as for who invented the first general decapitation machine, this 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.600 is totally unknown, lost to history, and in fact, we 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.520 don't even know for sure how many societies used a 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:13.840 device like this. There there are a lot of tales, 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:16.040 but many of these tales might not even be true. 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:18.040 We don't know for sure, right, And then how often 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:22.440 is the individual uh celebrated for creating such a thing 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:26.159 as we'll discover the naming of the guillotine, and it 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:30.280 doesn't really relate to the individual or individuals that created it, right. 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.480 I mean a lot of people who create execution devices 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:36.600 don't want to be associated with and when you find 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:38.399 the people who do want to be associated with them 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:40.240 or don't mind, you've got to kind of wonder about 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:43.520 those people. But um, So, there are a couple of 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:48.000 known mechanical beheading devices from England that predated the French guillotine, 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:52.040 and one is known as the Halifax Gibbet. So the 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.960 how Halifax is a town in West Yorkshire in England, 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.720 and it had this infamous beheading machine known as the 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:02.119 Halifax Gibbet, which was allegedly used mostly to punish petty theft, 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:04.840 so people would steal some small sum of money or 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:08.280 something worth not very much, some cloth or something, and 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:13.000 into the Halifax Gibbet they would go. It was described 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:15.600 in an eighteen thirty seven history by an author named 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:20.040 William White in the following way quote. The executions always 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.919 took place on the Great Market day in order to 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:26.440 strike the more terror into the neighborhood. When the criminal 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:28.800 was brought to the gibbet, which stood a little way 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.400 out of the town, where part of the stone platform 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.679 may still be seen on Gibbet Hill. The execution was 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:37.720 performed by means of an engine, which was raised upon 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:41.639 a platform four ft high and thirteen feet square, faced 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.399 on every side with stone, and ascended by a flight 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:47.560 of steps. In the middle of this platform was placed 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:51.320 two upright pieces of timber fifteen feet high, joined at 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.679 the top by a transverse beam. Within these was a 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:58.119 square block of wood four ft and a half long, 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.160 which moved up and down by means of grooves made 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:03.480 for that purpose. To the lower part of the sliding 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:06.719 block was fastened in iron axe of the weight of 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.280 seven pounds and twelve ounces. The axe, thus fixed, was 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:13.200 drawn up to the top by a cord and pulley. 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:15.280 At the end of the cord was a pin, which, 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.520 being fixed to the block, kept it suspended till the 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.840 moment of execution. When the culprit, having placed his head 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.600 on the block, the pin was withdrawn and his head 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:28.080 was instantly severed from his body. If the offender was 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:31.240 condemned for stealing an ox, a sheep, or a horse, 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:34.960 the end of the rope was fastened to the beast, which, 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:39.600 being driven, pulled out the pin and thus became the executioner. 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.639 In other cases, the bailiff for his servant cut the 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:46.000 rope and allowed the axe to descend. It's a little 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:50.680 unnecessary complexity involving fim animals, but otherwise the basic principles 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:52.640 of the guillotine as we've come to know it. Yeah, 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:54.840 it's more or less there there. There might be some 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.560 design refinements we come on later, but this is the idea. 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:01.879 It's it's a reliable, bowl, consistent machine that's not going 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:04.480 to mess up. Right. And of course it doesn't sound 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:07.080 like it was necessarily a custom blade, or maybe it was, 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:09.000 but it's very much based on the design of an 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.399 axe blade. Yeah, and when you see illustrations, it looks 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:14.840 like just a large axe head on the bottom of 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.240 a huge wooden block. Uh So, this beheading machine of 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:21.840 Halifax was famous enough that the English poet John Taylor 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:26.960 referenced it alongside the notoriously tough police of Kingston upon 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:29.560 Hull in a poem uh that that I thought was 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.480 pretty good. He writes, there is a proverb and a 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:35.680 prayer with all that we may not to Three strange 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:40.800 places fall from Hull, from Halifax, from Hell. 'tis thus 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:45.120 from all these three good Lord deliver us at Halifax. 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:48.200 The law so sharp doth deal that whoso more than 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:52.280 one threepence doth steal. They have a lynn that wondrous, 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:55.960 quick and well, since thieves all headless unto Heaven or Hell. 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:59.880 From Hell, each man says, Lord, deliver me, because from 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.720 Hell can no redemption be Men may escape from Hull 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:07.560 and Halifax, but sure in Hell there is a heavier tax. 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.600 It sounds pretty grim. Well. I like how it's sort 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:13.840 of captures two themes there. One is that how the 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:17.040 Halifax jibbit is deadly and something to be feared, but 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:20.520 it also contrasts it with the supposed tortures of Hell, 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:24.440 I guess, again emphasizing that, well, it's not as torturous 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.600 as many of the other methods that are being used. Yeah, 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:29.840