According to the memoirs of a famous executioner (which was a thing -- we’ll get to that), it was King Louis XVI who suggested a solid sheet of a blade rather than the crescent that was commonly used in such machines, reasoning that it would cut through thicker necks easier. It was no case irony that he ended up being killed by the guillotine -- clearly, Louis saw the writing on the wall, and he didn’t want to end up doing the Pharyngeal Clap.
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It Was Also Considered More Equal
At the time, aristocrats on death row were usually given a relatively quick and painless beheading, while poors got hanged or, if they really fucked up, broken on the wheel. (Don’t Google it. Trust us.) Petty crimes were also sometimes punished more harshly if the convict didn’t have the francs to butter the judicial croissant. Under Dr. Guillotin’s guidelines, every crime was punished equally no matter who did it, so if they weren’t gonna just not execute people, at least they could do it fairly.
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A Whole Lot of People Got Guillotined
Estimates vary widely, but officially, a whopping 17,000 people were executed in France during the 13 months of the Reign of Terror, nearly 3,000 in Paris alone. How did anyone get anything else done? Especially since…