The Official Table of Drops, formerly issued by the British Home Office, is a manual which is used to calculate the appropriate length of rope for long-drop hangings.
Following a series of failed hangings, including those of John Babbacombe Lee, a committee chaired by Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare was formed in 1886 to discover and report on the most effective manner of hanging. The committee's report was printed in 1888 and recommended a drop energy of . In April 1892, the Home Office revised this based on an energy of . In practice, however, the hangmen ignored this table and used considerably longer drops. A significantly revised edition of the Official Table of Drops was published in October 1913, allowing of drop energy – and then from 1939 executioners routinely added nine more inches () to the drop in the 1913 table.
The table continued to be used in the United Kingdom until the country suspended capital punishment in 1965, and the UK abolished the death penalty altogether in 1998. The table remains in use in former British colonies that have retained capital punishment by hanging, such as Singapore.The process of judicial hanging
Body weight 1888 drop 1892 drop 1913 drop Stone lb kg ft cm ft cm ft cm 14.0 196 89 6′5" 196 4'" 131 5′1" 155 13.5 189 86 6′8" 203 4'5" 135 5′" 161 13.0 182 6′11" 211 4'7" 140 5′6" 168 12.5 175 79¼ 7′3" 221 4'" 146 5′" 174 12.0 168 76¼ 7′6" 229 5'0" 152 5′" 182 11.5 161 73 7′10" 239 5'" 159 6′" 189 11.0 154 70 8′2" 249 5'5" 165 6′6" 198 10.5 147 8′7" 262 5'" 174 6′" 207 10.0 140 9′0" 274 6'0" 183 7′2" 218 9.5 133 60¼ 9′3" 282 6'" 192 7′6" 229 9.0 126 57 9′6" 293 6'8" 203 7′11" 241 8.5 119 54 9′9" 297 7'" 215 8′5" 257 8.0 112 51 10′0" 305 7'6" 229 8′6" 259 weight of prisoner (lb) 1892 drop (ft & inches) Ft.lbs energy developed 1913 drop (feet & inches) Ft.lbs energy developed105 and under8'0"840——1107'10"862——1157'3"8348'6" 10031207'0"8408'4"10001256'9"8448'0"10001306'5"8347'8" 9961356'2"8337'5"10011406'0"8407'2" 10031455'9"8346'11" 10031505'7"8386'8"9991555'5"8406'5"9951605'3"8536'3"10001655'1"8396'1"10041704'11"8365'10"9921754'9"8315'8"9911804'8"8395'7" 10051854'7"8485'5" 10021904'5"8395'3"9931954'4"8445'2" 1008200 and over4'2" 8335'0"1008
Other published drop tables 1947 US "Procedure for Military Executions" handbook.
References
External links Report of the Aberdare Committee Evolution of the long drop in the 19th and 20th centuries