Schmidt's Invention, Guillotin's Reputation

Today, politicians spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the image they want to convey to the voters. Unfortunately, Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin didn't have that option.

For more than 200 years, his name has been associated with one of the most diabolical instruments of death ever created. But the truth - as is often the case in life and politics - is something quite different.

Guillotin began his life as a Jesuit, but ultimately decided to leave the Society of Jesus and study medicine at Reims and the University of Paris.

In 1784, the French government asked him - along with American Benjamin Franklin - to investigate the authenticity of the "animal magnetism" being espoused by Dr. Franz Mesmer. Five years later, Guillotin became a deputy in the Assemblee Constituante. It was there that he proposed the creation of a machine that he hoped would make executions more humane, not more gruesome.

Indeed, Guillotin was a member of a French reform movement that wanted to completely abolish the death penalty. But with revolutionary fervor building, and the instincts of a good politician, he took what he could get. On Oct. 10, 1789, during the second day of debate on France's penal code, Guillotin proposed six articles to the new Legislative Assembly. One of them said "the criminal shall be decapitated; this will be done solely by means of a simple mechanism." Furthermore, he asked for the design of a  "machine that beheads painlessly."

That's the only connection between Dr. Guillotin and the implement that would come to define the French Revolution and forever be associated with his name.

Antoine Louis, secretary of the Academy of Surgeons, was actually charged with coming up with just such a device. He turned to Tobias Schmidt, a German harpsichord maker, to design it. His fee was 960 francs, which included a leather bag to catch the severed head.

The first prototype was set up on April 11, 1792. The test subjects were sheep and calves, followed by cadavers from a local prison hospital. The original blade didn't make a clean, swift cut. So Schmidt suggested the now-familiar diagonal blade instead of the traditional rounded one.

"Tres Magnifique," must have been their response upon seeing its perfection.  

The finished product weighed about 580 kilos (or 1,278 pounds). The blade itself weighed over 40 kilos. The side posts were just over 4 meters tall, and the blade drop was 2.3 meters. Power at impact? About 400 kilos, or 888 pounds, per square inch.

An estimated 40,000 prisoners would eventually meet their demise at the hands of Schmidt's invention, including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Contrary to popular belief, Guillotin was not beheaded.

He was imprisoned because of a letter from Count Mere, who was about to be executed. He asked Guillotin to take care of his wife and children. When Robespierre fell from power and the Reign of Terror came to an end, Guillotin was released. He died from a carbuncle (a nasty cyst) on his left shoulder in 1814.

Embarrassed by their association with the guillotine, his family asked the government to change the name; it refused. So the Guillotins changed their name.

Even if he were alive today, I doubt Guillotine would be able to clear his name. Today's media would find the story simply too good to ignore - regardless of the truth.

   Print   Email

2 Members’ Opinions