We all know how the guillotine works. I probably first learned about the device in history class as a child when studying 18th century France when Marie Antoinette and other government officials met their fate with the swift justice of a guillotine blade.

But that’s not what’s interesting. The interesting thing about guillotines are the version of this apparatus used by illusionists to entertain and scare us. We’re led to believe that they are surely going to wind up headless after showing us a watermelon split in half.

If you’ve wondered how they do that trick then wonder no more. Here’s a patent on a modern illusionist’s guillotine with full description of how the contraption works and fools the crowd.

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