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The thumbscrew is a torture instrument which was first used in early modern Europe. It is a simple vise , sometimes with protruding studs on the interior surfaces. Victims' thumbs, fingers, or toes were placed in the vice and slowly crushed.
Thumbscrew can mean: Thumbscrew (torture) , a screwed device formerly used for torture Thumbscrew (fastener) , a type of screw with a tall head and ridged or knurled sides, or a flat vertical head, intended to be tightened and loosened by hand
Thumbscrew; Tongue tearer; Tramp chair; Tucker telephone; Whip; Whirligig; Wicker man (Use disputed) Wooden horse; Medieval and early modern instruments of torture.
A thumbscrew is a type of screw drive with either a tall head and ridged or knurled sides, or a key-like flat-sided vertical head. They are intended to be tightened and loosened with the bare hand , and are usually not found in structural applications.
It is unclear exactly from which civilization the rack originated, they always would use the earliest examples are from Greece. [citation needed] The Greeks may have first used the rack as a means of torturing slaves and non-citizens, and later in special cases, as in 356 BC, when it was applied to gain a confession from Herostratus, an arsonist who was later executed for burning down the ...
The "Rats Dungeon", or "Dungeon of the Rats", was a feature of the Tower of London alleged by Catholic writers from the Elizabethan era. "A cell below high-water mark and totally dark" would draw in rats from the River Thames as the tide flowed in. Prisoners would have their "alarm excited" and in some instances, have "flesh ... torn from the arms and legs".
"Chinese water torture" is mentioned in the 1884 short story "The Compromiser" [5] suggesting some public familiarity with the term by that date. It might have been popularised by the predicament escape Chinese Water Torture Cell (a feat of escapology introduced in Berlin at Circus Busch on September 13, 1910). [1]
The Spanish boot was an iron casing for the leg and foot. Wood or iron wedges were hammered in between the casing and the victim's flesh. A similar device, commonly referred to as a shin crusher, squeezed the calf between two curved iron plates, studded with spikes, teeth, and knobs, to fracture the tibia and fibula.