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WHEEL, BREAKING ON THE

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 586 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WHEEL, BREAKING ON THE , a See also:form of See also:torture and See also:execution formerly in use, especially in See also:France and See also:Germany. It is said to have been first used in the latter See also:country, where the victim was placed on a See also:cart-wheel and his limbs stretched out along the spokes. The wheel was made to slowly revolve, and the See also:man's bones broken with blows of an See also:iron See also:bar. Sometimes it was mercifully ordered that the executioner should strike the criminal on See also:chest and See also:stomach, blows known as coups de See also:grace, which at once ended the torture, and in France he was usually strangled after the second or third See also:blow. A wheel was not always used In some countries it was upon a See also:frame shaped like St See also:Andrew's See also:Cross that the sufferer was stretched. The See also:punishment was abolished in France. at the Revolution. It was employed in Germany as See also:late as 1827. A murderer was broken on the See also:row or wheel at See also:Edinburgh in 1604, and two of the assassins of the See also:regent See also:Lennox thus suffered See also:death.

End of Article: WHEEL, BREAKING ON THE

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WHEELER, JOSEPH (1836-1906)

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