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The thumbscrew was a device made of two heavy pieces of metal separated by one or more screws. Sometimes the vice had studs or sharp points to pierce the nails and crush the nailbeds. The victim's toes could also be crushed in the thumbscrew, though a larger device was usually used for this. Ultimately, there was yet a bigger device that was used to crush the head. In this device, the chin was put on the lower bar and an iron cap was screwed down until the victim's skull ruptured. This took more effort, naturally, than the thumbscrew. The skull crusher is still used for interrogation, with the chin rest being padded.
Use
In the Middle Ages, torture was not only used to extract confessions but to get the names of accomplices or other information about the misdeed in question. A confession obtained by torture was considered perfectly legitimate to use in whatever court of law there was.
Austrian thumbscrew
The specifications for the Austrian thumbscrew were laid out in Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana, which was promulgated by Maria Theresa, empress of Austria-Hungary, in 1769. This was many years after torture was abolished in other countries like Prussia and Tuscany; England abolished torture in 1640. But in Austria, anyone who was accused of a misdeed and refused to confess to it was subject to the thumbscrew. Diagrams exist showing precise details of this instrument. Engravings show calm torturers applying the device to a screaming prisoner. Thumbscrews were even used to torture slaves in the Americas in the mid-1800s, according to the slave narrative of Olaudah Equiano.
Medical Use
Thumbscrews were also used to straighten the fingers of soldiers whose hands had been injured in battle, but effectiveness is in doubt.