17/3/1792 Dr Antoine Louis – Member of Académie Chirurgical, submitted his Avis motivé sur le mode de la Décolation. The document represents the first practical steps towards creation of the guillotine.

5/4/1792 Guidon the carpenter that was used to build scaffolds, was asked for an estimated price for the machine suggested by Dr Louis. 5.660 livres including the scaffold.

10/4/1792 Roederer (Procureur général syndic) and Tobias Schmidt (a German harpsichord maker) reached a happy accord: 960 livres was to cover the cost of manufacturing the machine, the sum moreover providing for a leather bag in which to dispose of the severed head.



11/4/1792 It was on this Wednesday afternoon, the first real guillotine was set up, in the Cour du Commerce, rue Saint-André-des-Arts. It was tried out on sheep and calves. The blade was not the oblique one yet. It may have been curved like that of an axe, or even straight. Tobias Schmidt the maker of this prototype, had his workshop there, just opposite the printing office in number 8, where Marat had Ami du Peuple printed.



12/4/1792 Dr Antoine Louis who was involved in the first practical steps towards the creation of the guillotine, wrote to his colleague Dr Cullerier at Bicêtre combined hospital, prison and old peoples home." That the beheading machine will not be ready for a test on human cadavres until Tuesday.

17/4/1792 The first test on human corpses at a combined hospital, prison and old peoples home, at Bicêtre. At least 3 cadavers were beheaded. Later that day a toolmaker in Paris got the job of making a new blade. It would be ready within three days.



20/4/1792 The newly conceived blade was fixed in position at Bicêtre.



21/4/1792 The improved machine was again tried out at Bicêtre. Three corpses were carefully selected from the military hospital in order to obtain, if possible, well-built men who had died in an accident or of some short illness which had not caused them to grow thin.



25/4/1792 Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier was executed on the place de Grève. Sanson operated the machine in dead earnest for the first time. It was not well received by the crowd who called for the return of the gallows.



5/6/1792 The architect Giraud submitted his report requested by Roederer. The report said: "Although well conceived in itself, it has not been perfected to the fullest possible extent. The grooves, the tongues and the gudgeons are of wood; the first should be made of brass, the others of iron; the hooks to which are attached the cords holding up the mouton are only fixed with round-headed nails; they should be fixed with strong nuts and bolts."



21/8/1792 The guillotine was installed at the place du Carroussel, where it stayed until May 7th 1793 with some interruptions, such as the execution of the king, which took place at Place de la Révolution.



23/09/1792 French Revolution Calendar is declared as official calendar of France Dates in parenthesis are dates in this particular calendar.