The Torture Museum, Amsterdam is located in Amsterdam, near the Bloemenmarkt overlooking the Singel. It exhibits historical instruments of torture.
The Daily Telegraph noted the museum as "one of the world's most unusual museums." [1] The museum is popular among tourists. [2] [3] [4]
The Torture Museum Amsterdam is not connected with another museum showcasing instruments of torture in Amsterdam: "the Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments". [5]
The museum consists of narrow and dimly lit rooms. Each room features one or two torture devices. Each device is accompanied with an enlarged image from a book or article featuring that device in use and a description of that device and how and why it was used. The articles are translated into English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. [6]
The museum displays a guillotine, the rack and stocks, in addition to little-known items such as thumb screws and the flute of shame. Other objects housed in the museum include the iron maiden, skull crusher, Judas cradle, Catherine wheels, and Scold's bridle. Some of the devices are genuine and antique, but many are modern reconstructions. [7]
The museum, whilst small, regularly appears in lists of 'top weird museums' [1] [8] and is regularly visited and cited in regard to the museum's range of torture devices. [9] [10] Books have used the Torture Museum as a source. [11]
An astrolabe is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclinometer and an analog calculation device capable of working out several kinds of problems in astronomy. In its simplest form it is a metal disc with a pattern of wires, cutouts, and perforations that allows a user to calculate astronomical positions precisely. Historically used by astronomers, it is able to measure the altitude above the horizon of a celestial body, day or night; it can be used to identify stars or planets, to determine local latitude given local time, to survey, or to triangulate. It was used in classical antiquity, the Islamic Golden Age, the European Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery for all these purposes.
The iron maiden is a mythical torture device, consisting of a solid iron cabinet with a hinged front and spike-covered interior, sufficiently tall to enclose a human being. The first stories citing the iron maiden were composed in the 19th century. The use of iron maidens is considered to be a myth, heightened by the belief that people of the Middle Ages were uncivilized; evidence of their actual use is difficult to find. They have become a very popular image in media involving the Middle Ages and involving torture chambers.
An electroshock weapon is an incapacitating weapon. It delivers an electric shock aimed at temporarily disrupting muscle functions and/or inflicting pain without usually causing significant injury.
Cock and ball torture (CBT) is a sexual activity involving the application of pain or constriction to the penis or testicles. This may involve directly painful activities, such as genital piercing, wax play, genital spanking, squeezing, ball-busting, genital flogging, urethral play, tickle torture, erotic electrostimulation, kneeing or kicking. The recipient of such activities may receive direct physical pleasure via masochism, or emotional pleasure through erotic humiliation, or knowledge that the play is pleasing to a sadistic dominant. Many of these practices carry significant health risks.
Xilinx, Inc. is an American technology and semiconductor company that primarily supplies programmable logic devices. The company is known for inventing the first commercially viable field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and creating the first fabless manufacturing model.
A tide gauge is a device for measuring the change in sea level relative to a vertical datum. It is also known as a mareograph, marigraph, sea-level recorder and limnimeter. When applied to freshwater continental water bodies, the instrument may also be called a limnimeter.
Pilotfish is a multidisciplinary design and innovation consultancy with offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Taipei. The company is specialized in industrial design, user interface design, and mechanical engineering. The company covers the entire product development process from research and strategy to ideation, design, engineering, sourcing, tooling, and production.
Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting.
Irma Boom is a Dutch graphic designer who specializes in bookmaking. Boom has been described as The Queen of Books, having created over 300 books and is well reputed for her artistic autonomy within her field. Her bold experimental approach to her projects often challenges the convention of traditional books in both physical design and printed content.
Bruker Corporation is an American manufacturer of scientific instruments for molecular and materials research, as well as for industrial and applied analysis. It is headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, and is the publicly traded parent company of Bruker Scientific Instruments and Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies (BEST) divisions.
An iron chair is a torture device that has several different variations depending on its origin and use throughout history. It is also known as the Chinese torture chair or the torture chair. In all cases, the victim was seated on several strips or plates of brass and placed over an open flame and slowly roasted alive. In other variations, the victim was tied to an iron armchair and then slowly pushed nearer and nearer to a blazing fire." Other versions of the chair had the addition of small sharp spikes which lined the back, seat, armrests and leg rests. The number of spikes ranged from 500 to 1,500.
A torture museum is a museum that exhibits instruments of torture and provides tutorials on the history of torture and its use in human society. Several museums dedicated to the history of torture are located in Europe.
The Mali series of graphics processing units (GPUs) and multimedia processors are semiconductor intellectual property cores produced by Arm Holdings for licensing in various ASIC designs by Arm partners.
The breast ripper, known in another form as the Iron Spider or simply the Spider, was a torture instrument used on women, usually who were accused of an array of negative attributes decided by male inquisitors. The instrument was designed to rip the breasts from a woman and was made from iron, which was usually heated.
The beauty micrometer, also known as the beauty calibrator, was a device designed in the early 1930s to help in the identification of the areas of a person's face which need to have their appearance reduced or enhanced by make-up. The inventors include famed beautician Max Factor Sr. A 2013 Wired article described the device as "a Clockwork Orange style device" that combines "phrenology, cosmetics and a withering pseudo-scientific analysis". A photograph of Factor, using the device on actress Marjorie Reynolds featured in a 1935 article in science magazine Modern Mechanix and, when republished by The Guardian in 2013, the caption described it as being "a contraption that looks like an instrument of torture".