In 1898, a strange contraption called a death helmet was said to soon take the place of the guillotine. However, the death helmet was far more barbaric than the simple blade of the guillotine. The device below was invented to plunge two probes into the brain and fry the brain. From the description, I believe the probes (pricks?) were to enter through the eyes (possibly the corners of the eyes, like in an ice pick lobotomy?). Thank goodness this form of execution did not see the light of day.
To Take the Guillotine’s Place
Whether or not the stroke of the guillotine causes instant death, it is more than likely that the raising of the question by Dr. Cinel will banish the machine which owes its origin to the reign of terror.
For months past the French government has had in its hands a machine superior to the guillotine in rapidity of action, which causes no distortion of visage and produced no scar.
The machine, which has been named “L’Executioner” by its inventor, Francois Esclangon, a well known scientist and the editor of the Parisian Le Monde Scientifique, is like the helmet worn by a fourteenth century cavalier.
From the top curves a long, hollow bar of steel, dividing near its end into two portions, which approximate closely two holes in the helmet near the upper portion.
In the cavity of this bar are placed two cartridges, run on grooves made in the carved bar and attached to long, curved needles. In the helmet are two holes fitted with disks which can be made to revolve until they come into opposition with the eyes of the victim.
The apparatus is in communication with a battery on a table near by which causes the cartridges to revolve and at the same time to plunge forward and bury themselves deep in the frontal lobes of the brain, destroying instantly a large portion of the white matter of the cerebrum.
Death is instantaneous and painless, and only a simple prick at the angle of each eye shows how the dead man passed.
Source: The Princeton union. (Princeton, Minn.), 22 Dec. 1898.
