The Treadmill Was Originally Invented as a Torture Device
Unveiling the Dark Origins and Evolution of an Everyday Fitness Tool
More than 200 years ago, the first version of the treadmill was invented in England to be used as a torture device on prisoners. This prison treadmill, also known as the treadwheel in its early days, was invented in 1818 by a British engineer whose name was Sir William Cubitt. It was meant to increase the suffering of the prisoners as a form of punishment.
The idea of inventing the treadmill as a device for punishment first occurred to Sir William Cubitt when he saw prisoners staying idle in a prison and thought that their muscle power could be put to use. In that era of England, all male prisoners were sentenced to spend at least 3 months doing hard labor.
Cubitt’s torture device turned out to be quite an important instrument in helping the prisoners complete their sentence of hard labor. The punishment treadmills were typically twenty-foot-long paddle wheels with twenty-four steps around a six-foot cylinder.
The prisoners had to stand side-by-side on the wheel and were required to run on it while it keeps spinning. They did this for at least 6 hours every day, which was the equivalent of climbing 5,000 to 14,000 vertical feet daily. It was like running an everlasting staircase.
The treadmill’s reputation for cruelty increased over time. The British government later banned it because it was too torturous a punishment to inflict on prisoners. They decided to use the idle time of prisoners by encouraging them to focus on education instead.
The treadmill used for exercising today was first patented in the USA in 1913. Fast forward a few years later in the present day, the treadmill has become the top-selling fitness equipment in the USA.
Originally published at https://original.newsbreak.com.
