Guillotine: Difference between revisions
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The '''guillotine''' is a [[beheading]] [[machine]] intended to reliably effect the quick and painless [[execution]] of condemned men. The device exists to deliver a humane execution. Hence its conception is opposed wholly to that of devices used to [[torture]] the condemned to [[death]], chief among them the [[Breaking Wheel|breaking wheel]]. | {{canon}} | ||
The '''guillotine''' is a [[beheading]] [[machine]] intended to reliably effect the quick and painless [[execution]] of condemned men. The device exists to deliver a humane execution. Hence its conception is opposed wholly to that of devices used to [[torture]] the condemned to [[:category:Death|death]], chief among them the [[Breaking Wheel|breaking wheel]]. | |||
The machine severs the [[head]] from the [[body]] by means of a slashing blow that a heavy, diagonally-edged blade delivers as it accelerates down a pair of channels from a height. Whereas the blow from an executioner's axe or sword must sometimes be repeated to complete it work, the blade of a properly maintained guillotine need ever fall only once. | The machine severs the [[head]] from the [[body]] by means of a slashing blow that a heavy, diagonally-edged blade delivers as it accelerates down a pair of channels from a height. Whereas the blow from an executioner's axe or sword must sometimes be repeated to complete it work, the blade of a properly maintained guillotine need ever fall only once. | ||
Revision as of 00:08, 6 April 2015
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This section contains canon info from officially published sources |
The guillotine is a beheading machine intended to reliably effect the quick and painless execution of condemned men. The device exists to deliver a humane execution. Hence its conception is opposed wholly to that of devices used to torture the condemned to death, chief among them the breaking wheel.
The machine severs the head from the body by means of a slashing blow that a heavy, diagonally-edged blade delivers as it accelerates down a pair of channels from a height. Whereas the blow from an executioner's axe or sword must sometimes be repeated to complete it work, the blade of a properly maintained guillotine need ever fall only once.
The guillotine enjoys at least some use in Dementlieu, with Lord-Governor Bernard Foquelaine himself being counted among its victims.
References
Gazetteer III, p. 14.
