The pain of history

Torture devices have been “improved” from the inhuman to the painless.. which doesn’t really correspond to the word torture at all. Nowadays, lethal injections, electric chairs and so on have taken over the ways to end a person’s life pain-free and humane. However, back in the day… it wasn’t really all quick and pain free… here are some torture devices that ought to set you straight for a while…enjoy

1. Tongue Tearer

A heretic or blasphemer was bound, his or her mouth forced open with the Mouth Opener. Next, the iron Tongue Tearer was produced, used to grab the most likely uncomfortably twitching tongue within it's rough grippers. Once a firm hold was maintained, the screw could be firmly tightened and the tongue was roughly torn from the prisoner's head.

2. Thumbscrew

The thumb-screw or thumbscrew (also known as thumbikins) was an old instrument of torture designed to slowly break the victim's thumb joint. Thumb-screws were much used by the Spanish Inquisition and in Scotland during the persecutions of the Covenanters for extracting confessions or recantations. Macaulay reports that a thumb-screw was often effective in wringing confessions when a bootikin had failed.

3. Heretic’s Fork

The heretic's fork, used to induce confessions, secured four sharp prongs deeply and painfully into the flesh of the victim. A small collar supported the instrument, as it was rammed one end under the chin and the other into the bone of the sternum. Firmly embedded into the victim's skin, the fork forced the head upright and prevented its movement. Penetration of any vital points of the victim's body were avoided, delaying death and prolonging the suffering. At this point, the victim may have been spared, or more likely, subject to further torture. However, if the Inquisitor was unable to illicit a confession using the fork, death was a certain, if not immediate, outcome. The fork remained firmly in place, as the victim was taken to be burned at the stake or hung.

4. Breast Ripper

Used as a way to punish women, the breast ripper was a painful and cruel way to mutilate a woman's breasts. This instrument was mostly reserved for women accused of conducting a miscarriage or those accused of adultery. The claws were used either hot or cold on the victim's exposed breasts. If the victim wasn't killed she would be scarred for life as her breasts were literally torn apart. A common variant of the breast ripper is often referred to as "The Spider" which is a similar instrument attached to a wall. The victim's breasts were fixed to the claws and the woman was pulled by the turturer away from the wall; DAMN!

5. The Pear of Anguish

The Pear of Anguish was used during the Middle Ages as a way to torture women who conducted a miscarriage, liars, blasphemers and homosexuals. A pear-shaped instrument was inserted into one of the victim's orifices: the vagina for women, the anus for homosexuals and the mouth for liars and blasphemers. The instrument consisted of four leaves that slowly separated from each other as the torturer turned the screw at the top. It was the torturer's decision to simply tear the skin or expand the "pear" to its maximum and mutilate the victim. The Pear of Anguish was usually very adorned to differentiate between the anal, vaginal and oral pears.  They also varied in size accordingly. This torture very rarely provoked death, but was often followed by other torture methods.

 

6. Iron Maiden

Not the 80s heavy metal band, but the iron cabinet found in Nuremberg, Germany. The interior of this device is lined with strategically-placed sharp objects that is intended to torture a person unlucky enough to be put inside it. These spikes impaled the victim in the eyes, the chest and the back, but usually missed vital organs, so as to leave the victim bleeding profusely and in great pain, but still alive for a period of time.

7. The skull splitter

Just as it says: it splits skulls. This one resembles an angel's halo, but there's absolutely nothing angelic or holy about it. Inside this halo are very pointy spikes, which are driven into the side of the victim's skull as the screws on the outside are tightened. The skull splitting part comes when the torturer either grabs the halo by its handles and jerks the victim side to side or hoists him or her into the air, by those very same handles. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the top of the victim's skull is violently removed by the aforementioned actions, and that brains tend to spill out all over the place in the process.

8. Head Crusher

The head crusher was widely used during most of the Middle Ages, especially the Inquisition. With the chin placed over the bottom bar and the head under the upper cap, the torturer slowly turned the screw pressing the bar against the cap. This resulted in the head being slowly compressed. First the teeth are shattered into the jaw; then the victim slowly died with agonizing pain, but not before his eyes were squeezed from his sockets.
This instrument was a formidable way to extract confessions from victims as the period of pain could be prolonged for many hours if the torturer chose to. This could be done by repeatedly turning the screw both ways. If the torture was stopped midway, the victim often had irreparable damage done to the brain, jaw or eyes. Many variants of this instrument existed, some that had small containers in front of the eyes to receive them as they fell out of their sockets.

9. Spanish Donkey

A number of medieval torture devices have the word "Spanish" attached to it, but this one is probably the most gruesome. The Spanish Donkey gave victims an unimaginably horrible ride, and here's why. Victims are put astride, naked, the apparatus, which is actually a vertical wood board with a sharp V-shape wedge on top. Varying weights are then attached to their feet. Eventually, the victim's own weight and the extra baggage cause the wedge to slice through their bodies, splitting them in half. Yikes.

10.Knee Splitter

A popular torture device during the Inquisition, the knee splitter does what it says: split victims' knees and render them useless. Built from two spiked wood blocks, the knee splitter is placed on top of and behind the knee of its victims. Two large screws connecting the blocks are then turned, causing the two blocks to close towards each other and effectively destroy a victim's knee.

There you go… just some of the many torture devices out there… so thank god you live in the 21st century and do not risk loosing you knee or even a boob.  =)