The guillotine was not a torture device, it was a method of execution.
What Torture Methods Were Uses During The French Revolution?
There was no torture under the Revolution. Torture had been partially abolished in 1781 by Louis XVI, then completely in 1788-1791. Drowning, guillotine, firing squad all fall under death penalty, and thus can be seen as "inhuman and degrading punishment" but not torture, as torture is (roughly) physical maltreatment in order to get intelligence.
It wasn't used during the Revolution, as justice was expeditive.
There was one - the famous one where your head was placed under a long blade tied to a piece of string. Then someone let go and it cut off your head! Lol! Oh dear - must be a bit painful - but hey! At least it was quick!:-)
The guillotine was the worst one - you were strapped to a wheel and hit till you died!
Due to a serious flaw in this site's processing of answers, yet another good answer has been mis processed by the service and lost. So let's try this again.
Suffice it to say that the guillotine was an execution device, not a torture device . . . In fact was invented for and adopted by France, until the mid 20th century, for its perceived humaneness in comparison with all that had come before. In similar fashion as by which lethal, remote controlled injection have supplanted hangings, gas poisonings, and executions, the guillotine (pronounced gee-yo-teen), invented by Guillotine and other noted professionals of that time, was fail safe and severed the head cleanly . . . With none of the mishits that came before which gave rise to gory scenes of repeated chopping/clubbing, flailing victims, and seemingly interminable, agonizing deaths. Additionally, the guillotine allowed the state's executioner to gain a modicum of separation from hands-on participation in the violence. The guillotine gained much of its macabre reputation not from any revulsion or outcry during its long tenure of legitimate use but, rather, from historic events with which it came to be associated: From the 18th-century reign of terror to its (study, "improvement," and) use for execution and mass murder during the Hitler regime. That and the sense of mystery and fascination that accompanies anything is it becomes lost to living memory.
Good article here: en.wikipedia.org
Suffice it to say that the guillotine was an execution device, not a torture device . . . In fact was invented for and adopted by France, until the mid 20th century, for its perceived humaneness in comparison with all that had come before. In similar fashion as by which lethal, remote controlled injection have supplanted hangings, gas poisonings, and executions, the guillotine (pronounced gee-yo-teen), invented by Guillotine and other noted professionals of that time, was fail safe and severed the head cleanly . . . With none of the mishits that came before which gave rise to gory scenes of repeated chopping/clubbing, flailing victims, and seemingly interminable, agonizing deaths. Additionally, the guillotine allowed the state's executioner to gain a modicum of separation from hands-on participation in the violence. The guillotine gained much of its macabre reputation not from any revulsion or outcry during its long tenure of legitimate use but, rather, from historic events with which it came to be associated: From the 18th-century reign of terror to its (study, "improvement," and) use for execution and mass murder during the Hitler regime. That and the sense of mystery and fascination that accompanies anything is it becomes lost to living memory.
Good article here: en.wikipedia.org
The(la terreur) swinging pendulum and another one was the guillotine was the one that had the balde that chopped of the head!!!! That guy needs to get his facts striaght