LaBoob
06-16-2008, 09:49 AM
Surviving History is a new show on the History Channel where a team of engineers and artists create some of the more macabre and deadly contraptions our ancestors used to use to execute, torture, and conquer each other.
I've only seen one episode so far, but it looks promising... in the episode I saw they recreated the Halifax Gibbet, an Iron Maiden, and, one I'd never heard of before, the Iron Boot, a boot that fit both feet and shins up to the knee, and then a torturer would slip wooden slats in between the knees and pound them in with a mallet, thus splintering the bones of the knees and shins. Ouch. By the way, they always test their death machines on themselves, to a certain extent... of course nobody dies.
If you enjoy this subject, you might like "What a Way to Go", by Geoffrey Abbot. It is a pretty thorough detailing of the horrifically creative ways people have killed each other throughout the years. Good beach reading.
I understand this subject is not everybody's cup of tea... I find it interesting how easily people were executed in the past, for the simplest offenses. It makes me think how little value was placed on human life in those times. Though some pretty gruesome methods are still being practiced today in other parts of the world...
I've only seen one episode so far, but it looks promising... in the episode I saw they recreated the Halifax Gibbet, an Iron Maiden, and, one I'd never heard of before, the Iron Boot, a boot that fit both feet and shins up to the knee, and then a torturer would slip wooden slats in between the knees and pound them in with a mallet, thus splintering the bones of the knees and shins. Ouch. By the way, they always test their death machines on themselves, to a certain extent... of course nobody dies.
If you enjoy this subject, you might like "What a Way to Go", by Geoffrey Abbot. It is a pretty thorough detailing of the horrifically creative ways people have killed each other throughout the years. Good beach reading.
I understand this subject is not everybody's cup of tea... I find it interesting how easily people were executed in the past, for the simplest offenses. It makes me think how little value was placed on human life in those times. Though some pretty gruesome methods are still being practiced today in other parts of the world...