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Actually,
the invention was originally named after its inventor, a
Frenchman named Antoine Louis. It was later renamed -- forever --
after the person who advocated its use, a French doctor named
Joseph. We'll save his last name for later, since it wouldn't be
much of a story if you knew his name at this point.
To really understand the
implications of this invention, you need a good understanding of
French history. Since I have neither a good understanding of French
history nor the desire to learn it, we'll just skip that part.
In 18th-century France, criminals
were executed in long, drawn-out affairs that usually involved
torture. Joseph tried to ban the death penalty altogether, and in
the process he proposed the use of this killing machine as a more
humane method of capital punishment. He thought this would be the
first step toward ending the death penalty. The machine that bore
his name was first used in 1791 and resulted in more than 40,000
deaths during the French Revolution. It made the death penalty
happen so fast and desensitized people to the point that it probably
resulted in an increased number of executions -- which was just the
opposite of what Joseph wanted. It was used only sparingly by the
time it was finally put to rest in 1977, more than 200 years after
it was first used.
The French Revolution lasted from
1789 to 1799 and included a period known as the Reign of Terror.
During this time, there was a group known by the misnomer of
Committee of Public Safety. This committee could try anyone for
offenses as simple as food hoarding all the way up to murder.
Victims would be executed with the machine that was named after
Joseph.
His children tried to get the
government to rename the machine after he died in 1814. The
government refused, but Joseph's children did manage to get their
last name changed. Two centuries later, Joseph's name is still
linked with this evil device.
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Joseph's name is forever linked in the
history books with another Frenchman, a Louis Capet. You've heard of
both of these men, even if you don't realize it just yet.
At first, Joseph's machine did not
have an official name, although it was originally referred to as a "luissette"
or a "louisson" (named for its original inventor, Antoine Louis).
Once the device was mass-produced, it became known by many
unofficial names, such as the "bastard daughter" (because no one
would take credit for inventing it), the "national razor" and "the
widow," because it produced many widows.
Eventually, it was given Joseph's
last name because he was the one who proposed its use. Its first,
um, "customer" was a robber named Nicolas Pelletier in 1792. Its
most notable victims were King Louis XVI and his wife, Queen Marie
Antoinette, which can mean only one thing. The person for whom the
death machine was named was Dr. Joseph Guillotin. I think you know
the name of the invention by now. France, by the way, finally
outlawed the death penalty in 1981.
Who was the Frenchman mentioned
earlier, Louis Capet? That was the given name of King Louis XVI.
For all you wannabe inventors out
there, there's a lesson to be learned here: Think twice before
naming your invention after yourself.
[Paul Niemann]
Paul Niemann is the author of Invention Mysteries. He may be reached
at niemann7@aol.com.
© Paul Niemann 2005
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