The workings of the Guillotine

Scene from 'WATER AND FIRE', a documentary by director Joost Seelen. If your interested in the full high resolution version, please visit www.docsonline.tv, select 'search title' and type 'Water and Fire'.

In 1933 Marinus van der Lubbe was sentenced to death by guilliotine in a German Court of Law for setting the German Reichstag on fire during the rise of Hitler. The historic documentary 'Water and Fire' is a story about the psychology of a man who defied death in the face of moral necessity. Marinus van der Lubbe was an idealist, a man of high moral and strong conviction. While the world choose to look the other way, Marinus van de Lubbe hoped to prevent Nazism from rising by burning their headquarters - the German Reichstag.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Guilliotine
• Death Sentence
• Marinus van de Lubbe
• Germany
• Reichstag
• Hitler
• Nazism
• 1933
• fire
• arsenal
• execution
• trial
• Joost Seelen
• documentary
• Dutchdox
• Dutchdocs
• Dutch documentary

[pentogram23]

it looks like it has a small-drop?I thought the blade had to fall from along height to be effective...?????

[DocsOnline]

@pentogram23 Interesting remark, I hadn't noticed. But indeed you may be right. We'll do some research and will let you know.

[thunderpantza]

yes a guillotine is extremely complicated...centuries of engineering....

[tonylast47]

This is not the French guillotine, but the German version.

[ring296]

Schon eine böse Maschine LG aus Calvörde

[oldstock1607]

@pentogram23 the blade and beam that carries it is pretty heavy. This combined with the angle of the blade will cut some shit.

[MultiRich999]

@pentogram23 me too pentogram long drop a few qualify for that these days

[MultiRich999]

@pentogram23  depends on how weighty the blade is want to try it out

[pentogram23]

I guess I am old fashioned....I like the long drop of the blade ...hello

[stefanorso]

@pentogram23 The reason is simple: you've got to get a certain amount of kinetic energy, enought to cut the neck of the victim (a very gruesome end...).

The formula is.

K=W·H (K=kinetik energy, W: weight of the falling blade; H: height).

So, the same quantity of energy of a 65 lbs blade falling from a height of 10 feet can be met by a 130 lbs blade falling from a height of 5. Hello!

[Highlander01]

@pentogram23 Yes, but remember, the blade is weighted by the mouton, and the blade is very heavy so it would probably cut through a neck with ease, even from such a short height.

[Bullwhipmaster]

This is the german "Fallbeil" (Drop Axe) or "Fallschwertmaschine" (Drop Sword Machine), the type is the Bavarian Model of 1854. In Germany, especially during the Third Reich, is was not usual to use the word "Guillotine". This model has a drop height of only 1,5 Meters, the french models of 1792 and 1870 had drop heights from 3,7 to 4,5 Meters. The german model 1854 was completely made of steel, the french models of oak, only the blade, the rails for the blade and some parts were made of steel

[spotswood4444]

@pentogram23 The reason for this is because it is a German Fallbiel, which is a much newer machine than the French style of Guillotine, this machine would have been used around 1944. The old style French machines were 4 metres tall. The way that the drop is reduced is by greatly increasing the weight of the Muton (this is the wooden block that the blade is connected to).

[muzfakil]

@pentogram23 either way it would still be effective? may not offer complete decapitation but anything that severs the spinal cord is instant death