Death by hanging was practiced in the UK until the abolition of the death penalty in 1964/5. Those who befell this execution did not all die easily, sometimes gasping for breath for a quarter of an hour before their lives mercifully ended. This is why the contraption invented by a man from Early Modern England, Thomas Derrick, mattered to a great deal of people. In the late 16th century Thomas managed to have his own execution commuted. He had been found guilty of rape, but the Earl of Essex allowed Thomas to live, on the condition that he become an executioner. Not a popular profession, the executioner was under enormous pressure to finish the job as quickly as possible: the relatives of the killed often would have been watching in the crowds, and would have festered hostility if the execution were bungled. So Thomas Derrick invented a series of ropes and pullies to effect his hangings more efficiently– the device was so successful that its use spread — a derrick is a typical part of cranes used for unloading. In a strange twist of history, Thomas Derrick ultimately was assigned to execute his former savior, the Earl of Essex, in 1601. The earl, being a nobleman, was allowed the option of having Thomas cut off his head rather than be hanged. Essex died of a beheading that he most assuredly hoped was swifter than the ropes.
Source(s): Image from tyburntree.wordpress.com; other information from _ Etemologicon_, by Mark Forsyth.
