Designed to make execution more humane, the guillotine quickly became a symbol of tyranny during the French Revolution.

 Victims were placed on a bench, face down, and their necks positioned between the uprights.

 The actual beheading was very quick, taking less than half a second from blade drop to the victim's head rolling into the waiting basket.

 As many doctors put forward the notion that it could take up to 30 seconds before the victim lost consciousness it is not known if this could be considered human.

 That piece of gruesome news would not have worried the crowd, which continually called for aristocratic and royalist blood to be spilt.

 An estimated 40,000 people travelled through Paris to die under Madame Guillotine.