Guillotine was the person who proposed that the machine named after him be used for a specific purpose. At the time of the French Revolution in 1789, a Dr. Guillotin proposed a way to introduce equality in the matter of capital punishment. All men and women should be executed in the same way – by decapitation. There should be no separate policy for those with status – even in death. A committee was set up to find the appropriate method. Key targets were to find a way to end life with causing pain which was quick and the met the equality criterion.
There was a lot of research and development. Even more committee work followed. After long deliberations it was considered that the guillotine was a humane solution. As such the guillotine was proposed and approved. It was the official form for carrying out the death sentence in France. It was used for the last time in 1977 before capital punishment was abolished in 1981.
The name was taken up in English almost immediately. Reports of what was happening during the France Revolution were read avidly across the world. In 1793, it is recorded “at half past 12 the guillotine severed her head from her body”. There was no explanation about what a guillotine was doing – this had already become common knowledge.
