Guillotine, instrument for inflicting capital punishment by decapitation, introduced into France in 1792. The device consists of two upright posts surmounted by a crossbeam and grooved so as to guide an oblique-edged knife, the back of which is heavily weighted to make it fall forcefully upon (and slice through) the neck of a prone victim.

guillotine A guillotine such as those used during the French Revolution. ilbusca/iStockphoto.com

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Previous to the French Revolution, similar devices were in use in Scotland, England, and various other European countries, often for the execution of criminals of noble birth. In 1789 a French physician and member of the National Assembly named Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was instrumental in passing a law that required all sentences of death to be carried out by “means of a machine.” This was done so that the privilege of execution by decapitation would no longer be confined to the nobles and the process of execution would be as painless as possible. After the machine had been used in several satisfactory experiments on dead bodies in the hospital of Bicêtre, it was erected on the Place de Grève for the execution of a highwayman on April 25, 1792. At first the machine was called a louisette, or louison, after its inventor, French surgeon and physiologist Antoine Louis, but later it became known as la guillotine. Later the French underworld dubbed it “the widow.”

Une Exécution capitale, place de la Révolution, painting by Pierre-Antoine Demachy An execution by guillotine during the Reign of Terror, depicted in Une Exécution capitale, place de la Révolution, oil on paper mounted on canvas by Pierre-Antoine Demachy, c. 1793; in the Carnavalet Museum, Paris. © Photos.com/Jupiterimages

During the French Revolution, the guillotine became the primary symbol of the Reign of Terror and was used to execute thousands of people, including King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. The use of the guillotine continued in France well into the 20th century, diminishing during the 1960s and ’70s, with only eight executions occurring between 1965 and the last one in 1977. In September 1981 France outlawed capital punishment and abandoned the use of the guillotine. Compare beheading.