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This famous device was known as the guillotine, and was primarily used as a painless method of execution during the French Revolution. It was invented by Doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin, who wanted to banish the death penalty completely. He argued for a painless and private capital punishment method equal for everybody, as a baby step for completely banning the death penalty. The first guillotining took place on April 25, 1792, when Nicolas Jacques Pelletie was guillotined at Place de Grève on the Right Bank. The final execution by guillotine took place on September 10, 1977, in Marseilles, France, when the murderer Hamida Djandoubi was beheaded.
- The total weight of a guillotine is about 1278 lbs, and the average height of a guillotine is about 14 feet.
- The falling blade has a rate of speed of about 21 feet a second.
- The actual beheading alone only takes 2/100 of a second.
- The guillotine metal blade weighs about 88.2 lbs