The Horror of the Past: Murder Devices Part 1

The world has turned into quite a gruesome place, but that's nothing compared to hundreds of years ago. Sure, technology and all the great devices meant for good today is used for bad uses instead of helping the world, but trust me, there are a lot of stuff that will make people awfully glad that they lived in the 21st century.

Today we are going to compare the horribleness of today's and yesterday's terrible killing machines. Just take it from me, just thinking about these primitive murder machines you will face in the old days is enough to make you lose your head (literally, if you do get killed by some of these things). After you look at this post, you too, will have to admit that these medieval murders could make the gas chamber look like a perfumery. Let's start the list:
(INTRODUCTION: These murder devices will be divided into two categories: Formal and Informal. Formal for the machines used for public executions, Informal for the ones even you could buy back in those days. Just an FYI: This post will be divided into two partsThe "informal" category)

FORMAL

THE GUILLOTINE
Used in the times of the French Revolution and countless other olden eras, these are one of the most (in)famous execution devices. For those of you who don't know, the guillotine is basically a massive door-like device (Picture a door) with a giant hole (Picture the said door 3/4 parts "holed"). A massive blade is attached to the top part of the device, supported by a rope (picture the "holey" door with a big bad blade on top of it. The blade is held up high with a rope. Let go of the rope, and the blade falls down). the "unholed" part of the door has a head-sized hole to put criminals' heads into. Here's a small picture of how the guillotine:

Get the idea? If you don't, do some more research on this thing.

WELL-DONE

This treacherous execution method is long and cruel, as you are killed by a slow fire. You have a few minutes to make your final thoughts before you turn into ash. This method of murder is to tie the sentenced person onto a stake (NO, I am perfectly aware that I did NOT misspell this. They don't tie you to a piece of steak and set you on fire, we're talking STAKE as in WOODEN STAKE) and set him ON FIRE! And if that wasn't cruel enough, do remember that you're actually ALIVE when they burn you (IF they burn you). As far as I know, many famous people have gone this way, Although the only person I DO know suffered this fearsome fate is Joan of Arc. Here's an "old painting" (I said "old painting" because I got this picture from Google Images, so it's not 100% "old painting") of a person being burnt on a stake:

Well, that's the end of part one. But don't go away! Part 2 of this post is just around the corner and it's got more ingenious soul-destroying contraptions. See you until the next update!