The treadmill was invented originally in England as a prison rehabilitation device

The treadmill was invented originally in England as a prison rehabilitation device

The Romans used them to remove water from mines, they were stacked one on top of the other until the water reached the surface, when the slave died from exhaustion, they would just replace them and leave the body where they fell, if they didn't like you they would put you on the bottom.

While treadmills were used as prison torture devices for a few decades in England, this was far from the original

invention of the treadmill. They've been around for so long that the original inventor is lost to history.

Thousands of years ago, they were used for tasks like grinding grain or lifting water. For example, the romans

had a treadmill-powered crane

Here is one in the tower of a mediæval church in Nördligen. They were used as cranes, as you mentioned, for the construction of cathedrals and large churches. We know this from paintings from the time, but this is

the only one I know of that they left in place.

It was named tread-mill because prisoners had to power the flour mills. It was designed in a way that if they stopped before the time they were meant to stay, it would crush them

While this was true, it is false to claim that this is where the treadmill was invented. Treadmills existed for

thousands of years prior to this one example.

William Staub, a mechanical engineer, developed the first consumer treadmill for home use. Staub developed his treadmill after reading the 1968 book Aerobics by Kenneth H Cooper. Cooper's book noted that individuals who ran for eight minutes four to five times a week would be in better physical condition. Staub noticed that there were no affordable household treadmills at the time and decided to develop one for his use during the late 1960s. He called his first treadmill the PaceMaster 600. Once finished, Staub sent his prototype treadmill to Cooper, who found the machine's first customers, including sellers of fitness equipment.

Staub began producing the first home treadmills at his plant in Clifton, New Jersey, before moving production to Little Falls, New Jersey.

Treadmills for punishment were introduced in 1818 by an English engineer named Sir William Cubitt, who was the son of a miller. Noting idle prisoners at Bury St Edmunds gaol, he proposed using their muscle power to both cure their idleness and produce useful work.

Cubitt's treadmills for punishment usually rotated around a horizontal axis, requiring the user to step upwards, like walking up an endless staircase. Those punished walked around the outside of the wheel holding a horizontal handrail for stability. By the Prison Act of 1865 every male prisoner over 16, sentenced to hard labour, had to spend three months at least of his sentence in the labour of first class, which consisted primarily of the treadmill.

Punishment treadmills remained in use until the second half of the 19th century; they were typically twenty-foot (0,6 m) long paddle wheels with twenty-four steps around a six-foot (1,82 m) cylinder. Several prisoners stood side-by-side on a wheel and had to work six or more hours a day, effectively climbing 5,000 to 14,000 vertical feet (1500 to 4000 m). While the purpose was mainly punitive, the most infamous mill at Brixton Prison was installed in 1821 and used to grind grain to supplement an existing windmill which Cubitt had previously installed nearby. It gained notoriety for the cruelty with which it was used, which then became a popular satirical metaphor for early-19th century prisons.

The machines could also pump water or power ventilators in mines.

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