Guillotine was actually invented by two men named Antoine Louis and Tobias Schmidt. Surprisingly, the invention wasn’t named after them but after the man who proposed its use for executions as a better humane alternative, Dr Joseph Ignace Guillotin.

The guillotine is an efficient machine used to industrialize the process of executions when compared to other gruesome methods like burning, decapitation by sword and hanging. Before this invention execution were clumsy based on the fact that there wasn’t guarantee of a quick, clean, and relatively painless death compared to guillotine. Guillotine was first conducted on sheep and calves as initial tests, before moving on to men, which proved a little more difficult for the contraption. A slight modification was made, and testing proved beyond any doubt that it was incredibly efficient. Within a month of its first use, one of the inventors of the guillotine was killed by guillotine. The man named Antoine Louis was killed by his invention during the initial phase of the Reign of Terror. The man who it was named after was condemned to die but escaped its clenches and died of natural causes many years later.

Content created and supplied by: Sheyog (via Opera News )