When English civil Engineer Sir William Cubitt invented the “treadwheel,” he didn’t have fitness on his mind.
His device was used to reform convicts.
Prisoners were forced to climb the spokes of a large paddle wheel known as the “eternal staircase.” The resulting energy was used to pump water or crush grain (hence, the eventual transition from “treadwheel” to “treadmill”).
One prison guard claimed that it was the treadmill’s “monotonous steadiness, and not its severity, which constitutes its terror.”
The use of treadwheels was abolished in Britain by the Prisons Act of 1898. Years later, when aerobic exercise became popular in the 1960’s, the treadmill resurfaced.
Most treadmills run on DC motors with magnets in them, so they could generate all the power you like if you pushed the treadmill and had the right controller.
I’m annoyed that the nice bike trainers don’t generate power, or at least have the option to. My Wahoo shouldn’t be drawing power from the grid, it should be supplying it!
I used to have a cheap one with no motor at all. It was slightly inclined. You just pushed backwards to get it started and it used your own momentum/gravity to turn.
Probably just outlawed it as a form of punishment or torture.
Using a tread wheel in a mill, crane or for dewatering is ancient, think Ancient Greece. Up until the Industrial Revolution, it was a major source of power where you couldn’t get flowing water on a consistent basis. Use for fitness doesn’t constitute torture by the state.
For the uninitiated:
And treadmills now probably consume way more power now than they could actually generate.
Most treadmills run on DC motors with magnets in them, so they could generate all the power you like if you pushed the treadmill and had the right controller.
I’m annoyed that the nice bike trainers don’t generate power, or at least have the option to. My Wahoo shouldn’t be drawing power from the grid, it should be supplying it!
I used to have a cheap one with no motor at all. It was slightly inclined. You just pushed backwards to get it started and it used your own momentum/gravity to turn.
So the original treadmills required the user to push them and they couldn’t leave? That does sound way worse.
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Probably just outlawed it as a form of punishment or torture.
Using a tread wheel in a mill, crane or for dewatering is ancient, think Ancient Greece. Up until the Industrial Revolution, it was a major source of power where you couldn’t get flowing water on a consistent basis. Use for fitness doesn’t constitute torture by the state.