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The guillotine is an engine for beheading people at one stroke. It was invented during the Middle Ages, and adopted with improvements by the National Assembly of France during the first revolution on the proposal of a Dr Joseph Guillotine who proposed its use to prevent unnecessary pain, and after whom it is named.
In this apparatus decapitation is effected by means of a steel blade loaded with a mass of lead, and sliding between two upright posts, grooved on their inner sides, the person's neck being confined in a circular opening between two planks, the upper one of which also slides up or down. The condemned is strapped to a board and rapidly moved up so as to place the neck of the condemned within the semi- circle of the lower plank, the other being raised for the purpose. On the right of the table is a large basket or trough of wicker-work for the reception of the body. Under the place where the head rests is a rectangular trough for its reception. The knife is fixed to the cap or lintel on the top of the posts by a claw in the form of a figure eight, the lower part of which opens as the upper- part closes. This claw is acted upon by a lever to which a cord is attached. When the head of the condemned is in position the cord is pulled, and by the action of the lever the knife falls, descending by the grooves of the upright posts and falling upon the neck of the condemned just behind the planks which keep the head in position. The scaffold which is surrounded by an open railing is raised two metres from the ground.
The name guillotine is also given to a type of knife used for cutting paper.
 Research Guillotine
In architecture, a camber is an upward concavity in the under side of a beam, girder, or lintel. The term is also applied to a slight upward concavity in a straight arch.
Research Camber
In architecture, a cap is the uppermost of any assemblage of parts; for example the cap of a column (a capital) , door, etc.; the term also applies to a coping, cornice, lintel, or plate.
In architecture a lintel is a horizontal member spanning an opening, and carrying the superincumbent weight by means of its strength in resisting crosswise fracture.
Research Lintel
In architecture a manteltree is the name given to a lintel of a fireplace when its made of wood, as was frequently the case in early houses.
Research Manteltree
In architecture a member is any part of a building, whether constructional, such as a pier, column, lintel, or the like, or decorative, such as a moulding, or group of mouldings.
In architecture a pier is a detached mass of masonry, whether insulated or supporting one side of an arch or lintel, as of a bridge. The term is also applied to the piece of wall between two openings and to an additional or auxiliary mass of masonry used to stiffen a wall.
Research Pier
In architecture a summer is a large stone or beam placed horizontally on columns, piers, posts, or the like, serving for various uses. Specifically the lintel of a door or window, the commencement of a cross vault, or a central floor timber, as a girder, or a piece reaching from a wall to a girder.
Research Summer
The phrase 'To spring an arch' is an architectural phrase meaning to build an arch. It is a common term among masons for example 'to spring an arch over a lintel.'
Research To Spring an Arch
A trilithon is a megalithic structure comprising a horizontal lintel supported by two uprights. Stonehenge includes several examples.
Research Trilithon
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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