Hello Forum Members!
Out of respect for the host country I wanted to try to put my first post in French. I guess Google Translator is not the best means to do that. I will take the advice of Carnifex and try again in English (as an American I can almost speak that language).
I think I will sign up for some French courses at our city college.
What I guess I failed to say earlier was this: I want to be in agreement with the majority (all?) Board Members in my use of terminology. My first question is, what is the front side and what is the rear side of the Guillotine?
Since the first time I saw one, my attention was focused on the bevelled side of the blade, and I have always assumed that was the 'front' side. I tried to use the analogy of the 'theater of the scaffold' to a real theater. The principal actor (the victim) enters the play (drama) from the rear. He/she then advances toward the front of the stage, plays his brief role before the audience (spectators) and exits. Thinking in this manner, one would look upon the head-basket side of the Widow as the front. I think this view may have prevailed during the Revolution when viewing the executions was like watching the actors in a play, and everybody was looking to the 'head' side of the lunette. By the 1870's the authorities had
removed the scaffold and were endeavoring to separate the spectators from the event by keeping them away from the action as far as possible. With the 'theater' analogy no longer true, the analog of the Guillotine to some all-consuming mouth/digestive system would bring the focus to the bascule-side.--- One is swept up by a tongue (bascule), sucked between the jaws (posts), the lips close around one's neck (lunette), and the tooth bites one's head off. From this, one would tend to view the bascule side as the 'front'.
All my musings on the subject are now, however, irrelevant. With two senior members voting for the bascule side as 'the front', I accept this convention and will make the appropriate change in thinking. If the bascule side is the front, then Sanson and Deibler stood on the left side of the machine. Correct? By the way, did any of the executioners make any pronouncements on this subject? Whatever they said is written in stone.
In closing, I thank you all for your replies and your patience with my first, stumbling efforts to become a good member of this forum. I am a dinosaur who has only recently discovered computers. If I breach protocol or give any offense, I humbly ask pardon. I am still learning and make many mistakes. I guess my choice of user name already reflects that.
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