Do you think that there was a "splash zone" when a guillotine was used?

What a warm nice thought so soon after the holidays.
The blade probably blocked most of it, but there had to be some.

Somewhat. The blood pressure in the brain would cause quite a squirt from the head as it fell from the blade and the torso (heart pumping wildly from the adrenaline) would squirt a bunch of blood all over the torso’s side of the blade but there really wouldn’t be a splash zone (from the action/movement of the blade) so much.

So, what they should have done was to design it such that the blade went entirely beneath the neck rest and was hung either with double ropes, one on each side, or a yolk that formed a “Y” where the neck was and was knotted above said point.

The head was put through a 2-piece board that had an upper and lower section, the top part that could be raised so the head could be inserted. Both boards had a half-moon hole so the neck would be kept firmly in place while the blade made it’s cut. The blade passed just beyond the hole to make a clean cut. Yes, the blade went beyond the bottom of the neck. The raising rope was attached to the top of the guillotine structure with a pulley and a quick release so the rope wouldn’t slow the fall of the blade on it’s downward plummet. When the victim was ready, a pull of a release rope, like on a gallows trap door, would unlock the quick release mechanism and the blade would fall speedily and unencumbered to it’s grisly work. Watch the movie “A Tale of Two Cities.”

What a remarkable question! I would forecast at least a 2’ zone where blood would squirt out but, it would be a ricochet effect I would imagine. The blade would come down, splitting off the head and the blood from the body and heart would come out of the neck and bounce off the blade and back at least 2’. I would imagine the head to only pool out around it.

I’m picturing Gallagher taking off heads. And those horrible Samurai movies where headless bodies shoot rivers of blood 15 feet into the air.