- This page is about the torture device. For the fastener, see Thumbscrew (fastener).
The thumbscrew or pilliwinks is an instrument of torture which was used in medieval Europe. It is a simple vise, sometimes with protruding studs on the interior surfaces. The tortured victim's thumbs or fingers were placed in the vise and slowly crushed. The thumbscrew was also applied to crush prisoners' toes, while larger, heavier devices based on the same design principle were applied to destroy knees and elbows. Image File history File linksMetadata Thumbscrews_dsc05359. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Thumbscrews_dsc05359. ...
Motto (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity Cha togar mfhearg gun dioladh (Scottish Gaelic)1 Wha daur meddle wi me?(Scots)1 Anthem (Multiple unofficial anthems) Scotlands location in Europe Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic, Scots Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2316x1564, 357 KB) thumbscrews Photo taken at the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Copyright © 2005 David Monniaux File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Thumbscrew Metadata This file contains...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2316x1564, 357 KB) thumbscrews Photo taken at the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Copyright © 2005 David Monniaux File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Thumbscrew Metadata This file contains...
Thumbscrews from an ATX personal computer case A thumbscrew is a specialized type of screw with a tall head and ridged or knurled sides, intended to be tightened and loosened by hand. ...
Torture is defined by the United Nations Convention Against Torture as any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he...
The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ...
World map showing the location of Europe. ...
Bench vise A vise (American and Canadian English) or vice (British English) is a mechanical screw apparatus used for holding or clamping a work piece to allow work to be performed on it using other tools, such as saws, planes, drills, mills, screwdrivers, sandpaper, In general, vises have a fixed...
// This digit is one of the five fingers (though the word finger can also refer exclusively to the non-thumb digits). ...
Fingers of the human left hand A finger is a type of digit, an organ of manipulation and sensation found in the hands of humans and other primates. ...
Toes on foot. ...
For other uses, see Knee (disambiguation). ...
Elbow redirects here. ...
As well as compression of fingers and toes, the opposite concept of distension was also employed in torture chambers. Tearing the nails out of the fingers and toes as slowly as possible was a particularly common method of torture. The most straightforward means employed a pliers—often heated red-hot—to tear out the nails at the root. However, the nail extraction could be accomplished even more slowly and cruelly by first driving wooden wedges, needles, or splinters of wood, metal, or bone under the nails to pry them loose. Splinters in particular were sometimes dipped in boiling sulfur to make the torture even more savage. Physical compression is the result of the subjection of a material to compressive stress, resulting in reduction of volume. ...
Abdominal pain can be one of the symptoms associated with transient disorders or serious disease. ...
Pilliwinks or pyrwykes may also have been used to straighten girl's fingers in Medieval and Renaissance England similar to how we use braces to straighten teeth today or the ancient Chinese bound feet. The pyrwykes used for this purpose probably differed from thumbscrews by squeezing the fingers. According to the Tudor historian Eric Ives, Anne Boleyn sent a pair of pyrwykes to the nursemaid looking after her daughter, the future Elizabeth I. Presumably, this device was responsible for Elizabeth's elegant fingers. The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ...
The Renaissance (French for rebirth, or Rinascimento in Italian), was a cultural movement in Italy (and in Europe in general) that began in the late Middle Ages, and spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century. ...
Motto (French) God and my right Anthem God Save the King (Queen) England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification - by Athelstan 967 Area...
Anne Boleyn, 1st Marchioness of Pembroke[1] (ca. ...
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603 ) was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. ...
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