| The models presented above and below are based on the 1792-1793 guillotine. A well-preserved guillotine of that vintage is exhibited in the Limburg Museum in Venlo, Holland. Similar machines can be seen in vintage photographs, although most of them were taken since 1860 and the machines had been extensively modified by then. The Brugge (Belgium) guillotine is a prime example of such an 1792 model used until 1862 and modified extensively in the process. This guillotine model was the one in use at the height of the French Revolution when the Terror sent thousands of people to their deaths. It is the machine on which Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Charlotte Corday, Danton and Robespierre were executed. The models have none of the more modern modifications and represent something close to what the original machine made by Tobias Schmidt may have looked like. The frame is oak, painted red to hide the blood. The connecting points are all mortise and tenon construction and the machine can be taken apart by merely removing the steel spikes locking the joints together. The mouton is made of oak with a steel backer plate and a steel crash bar which prevents it from being damaged when it impacts the wood at the end of the grooves. The blade assembly simply slides in grooves cut into the wood posts. The bascule carriage, likewise, features wood tenons sliding in wood grooves as does the lunette. The release mechanism consists of a simple horizontal lever arm holding the blade up while being held in place by a steel rod attached to a handle. Releasing the handle from its' steel peg lets the lever arm drop and the blade fall. The large basket is made of rope on a steel frame with an oak base. The scale of the model is 1/6th making it approx. 30" tall by 15" long by 6" wide. |
