CP during the 1800s U.K
In the U.K hanging was the primary method of execution for the entire 19th century. Until the 1850s the condemned's hands were pinioned, which to say that their hands would be tied together in a wrap of string palm to palm and a second wrap around the pit of the elbows and to the back, pinioning made it possible for the condemned to properly pray. However, pinioning allowed for to much mobility leading to struggling and fighting back. In the 1850s William Calcraft developed a leather brace that firmly bound the condemned's arms to their sides (a relaxed hanging arm position), almost like a partial cocoon of leather. Later this was adapted to hold the condemned's hands behind their back in order to continue to allow them to properly pray, which people showed concern over.
If the intensity of the crime was deemed high the condemned could be hanged with a metal chain, additionally that metal chain could be heated to skin burning temperatures as well. In the years preceding 1834 when the courts wanted to make a spectacle and a point, the execution for those criminals the court deemed of the highest malice would receive the additional punishment of gibbetting. Gibbetting involved dipping the corpse of the hanged individual in molten tar as soon as possible after their execution and then placed in an iron cage where it was hung from the original gallows, placed in a common areas or hung on some castles/buildings like a chandelier for periods that sometimes exceeded an entire year; this was considered a horrible punishment because it was the belief that the soul could not go forward to heaven or hell without the liberation of its body and gibbetting was thought to trap the soul inside the corpse in isolation and insanity.
The U.K utilized two different forms of hanging, the short drop method, and the long drop method. The short drop method involved simply hanging the person from a few inches to a foot and would commonly not fulfill its intended role of killing the condemned immediately by severing the connection between the head and spine, but instead leave the condemned to squirm and suffer and slowly choke to death. The long drop was the universal method of hanging used in the U.K from 1874 onward, introduced by William Marwood in 1872 was a drop specifically calculated and measured to ensure that the condemned's head and spine would be properly severed delivering a swift humane death. Under the long drop method, once the condemned grew close to the end of their drop a sharp jerk was delivered to drive the head back putting it in a better position to do the right job. The variables of weight, rope length, height, and neck circumference (to determine the proper tension of the noose), were all factored in to creating the perfect drop and jerk.
Throughout the entire 19th century in the U.K, in the event that the body was not gibbetted, the bodies were released to doctors for autopsies to learn more about anatomy and to make advancements in medicine and medical understanding/science., If the family of the condemned even wanted the body, they had to fight with the doctors and the executioners over who the body was released to. Where the end result frequently favored the doctor.
If the intensity of the crime was deemed high the condemned could be hanged with a metal chain, additionally that metal chain could be heated to skin burning temperatures as well. In the years preceding 1834 when the courts wanted to make a spectacle and a point, the execution for those criminals the court deemed of the highest malice would receive the additional punishment of gibbetting. Gibbetting involved dipping the corpse of the hanged individual in molten tar as soon as possible after their execution and then placed in an iron cage where it was hung from the original gallows, placed in a common areas or hung on some castles/buildings like a chandelier for periods that sometimes exceeded an entire year; this was considered a horrible punishment because it was the belief that the soul could not go forward to heaven or hell without the liberation of its body and gibbetting was thought to trap the soul inside the corpse in isolation and insanity.
The U.K utilized two different forms of hanging, the short drop method, and the long drop method. The short drop method involved simply hanging the person from a few inches to a foot and would commonly not fulfill its intended role of killing the condemned immediately by severing the connection between the head and spine, but instead leave the condemned to squirm and suffer and slowly choke to death. The long drop was the universal method of hanging used in the U.K from 1874 onward, introduced by William Marwood in 1872 was a drop specifically calculated and measured to ensure that the condemned's head and spine would be properly severed delivering a swift humane death. Under the long drop method, once the condemned grew close to the end of their drop a sharp jerk was delivered to drive the head back putting it in a better position to do the right job. The variables of weight, rope length, height, and neck circumference (to determine the proper tension of the noose), were all factored in to creating the perfect drop and jerk.
Throughout the entire 19th century in the U.K, in the event that the body was not gibbetted, the bodies were released to doctors for autopsies to learn more about anatomy and to make advancements in medicine and medical understanding/science., If the family of the condemned even wanted the body, they had to fight with the doctors and the executioners over who the body was released to. Where the end result frequently favored the doctor.