Treadmill

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Origin

Treadmills as power sources originated in antiquity. These ancient machines came in three major designs. The first was to have a horizontal bar jutting out of a vertical shaft. It rotated around a vertical axis, driven by an ox or other animal walking in a circle pushing the bar. Even humans were used to power them. The second design was a vertical wheel that was powered through climbing in place instead of walking in circles. This is similar to what we know today as the hamster wheel. The third design also required climbing but used a sloped, moving platform instead.

Treadmills as muscle powered engines originated roughly 4,000 years ago. Their primary use was to lift buckets of water. This same technology was later adapted to create rotary grain mills and the treadwheel crane. It was also used to pump water and power dough-kneading machines and bellows.

Treadmills for modern punishment were invented by In 1818 by an English engineer named Sir William Cubitt, son of a miller. Noting idle prisoners Bury St Edmunds gaol, he proposed using their muscle power to both cure their idleness and produce useful work. 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 both for the cruelty with which it was used which then became a popular satirical metaphor.

Definitions

  • 1a : a mill worked by persons treading on steps on the periphery of a wide wheel having a horizontal axis and used formerly in prison punishment
b : a mill worked by an animal treading an endless belt
c : a device having an endless belt on which an individual walks or runs in place for exercise or physiological testing
  • 2: a wearisome or monotonous routine resembling continued activity on a treadmill <the office treadmill>

Description

A treadmill is a device for walking or running while staying in the same place. Treadmills were introduced before the development of powered machines, to harness the power of animals or humans to do work, often a type of mill that was operated by a person or animal treading steps of a treadwheel to grind grain. In later times treadmills were used as punishment devices for people sentenced to hard labour in prisons. The terms treadmill and treadwheel were used interchangeably for the power and punishment mechanisms.

More recently treadmills are not used to harness power, but as exercise machines for running or walking in one place. Rather than the user powering the mill, the machine provides a moving platform with a wide conveyor belt driven by an electric motor or a flywheel. The belt moves to the rear requiring the user to walk or run at a speed matching that of the belt. The rate at which the belt moves is the rate of walking or running. Thus, the speed of running may be controlled and measured. The more expensive, heavy-duty versions are motor-driven (usually by an electric motor). The simpler, lighter, and less expensive versions passively resist the motion, moving only when walkers push the belt with their feet. The latter are known as manual treadmills.[1]