

History of Treadmill, punishment for prisoners
The treadmill, also known as a dreadmill, rat wheel, or running machine, is the most widely used fitness equipment in the world. In 2016, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) conducted a survey in which over 50 million Americans admitted to having either enjoyed or endured using one at some point in the preceding year. The fact that treadmills make up nearly 40% of gym equipment sales in the US, as reported by the Washington Post, is therefore not surprising.
This is a remarkable turnaround for a machine that was once used in 19th-century Britain as a form of punishment to keep prisoners in check. It may seem strange that the most popular form of physical fitness these days is a boring, cramped workout, but not too long ago, this kind of exercise was meant to deter criminals from committing new crimes.
However, these days it’s impossible to enter a gym without seeing rows of machines. However, according to a Daily Mail article, people didn’t start using treadmills exclusively for exercise until the Roaring Twenties and Gatsby-era girls in fetching early activewear. The first consumer running machine didn’t come out until the 1960s.
Related Topic You Might Find Interesting:
- Jack the Baboon operated a railroad, earned a living, and never made a mistake
- The history of Flour sack clothing fashion
Why is the torture machine becoming a voluntary rather than a mandatory one? The treadmill’s greatest draw for some people is its convenience—you can get your cardio in a short stroll from the water cooler and a hot shower. Some have harsh weather that prevents them from engaging in outdoor exercise (think Midwest winters and oppressive summers in dry Arizona). The only way to get some aerobic miles in is to crawl onto the rubber belt.
Over the last ten years, there have been advancements in the motorized treadmill, leading to the development of self-powered, curved, smart connected, underwater, and anti-gravity models. Some even have virtual reality compatibility built in.
However, where did the term “treadmill” come from and how did this cardiovascular king become all-powerful? Prepare yourself for a tour through the colorful history of treadmill by setting the speed to 6 and the belt inclination to 1.5 percent.
The Origin and History of Treadmill

The history of treadmill begins with the Romans and a human hamster wheel that was used by laborers to raise big weights that were built into cranes. You could lift twice as much weight with half as much muscle by substituting men inside a larger wheel for a winch. You didn’t need an abacus to figure that out. It meant that more money stayed in the Roman coffers and that construction proceeded more quickly.
According to the blog of the fitness equipment company Life Fitness, this trend of combining the power of humans and animals became popular much later in Industrial Revolution Britain. There, ambitious engineers created inventions like animal-powered water pumps, butter churns, and of course, mills.
The phrase “walking machine” was thus created.
Treadmills, Punishment for Prisoners

There’s no mincing words, British prisons in the 1800s were extraordinarily bad places—solitary confinement was routine, food was scarce, and discipline severe. Because things were so grim activists fought for new forms of rehabilitation. In 1818, English engineer William Cubitt devised a human-powered treadmill for grinding corn. This, according to the British Library, caught the attention of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline who latched onto the machine as a form of “preventive punishment.” They reasoned nobody exposed to it would risk re-offending. Thereafter, treadmills were installed in jails across the land.
Convicts sentenced to hard labor climbed onto a 24-paddle stepped wheel, powering the device with continuous exertion much like the stair climber in your local gym. Some prisoners endured up to 10-hour workouts daily, climbing the equivalent of 17,000 feet—over half the height of Mount Everest, according to a BBC report.
Birth of the Cardio King
If Apple Watches had been provided as standard equipment in Victorian prisons, maybe the wardens would have noticed the rising heart rates. Rather, according to the LifeFitness blog, the first recorded medical application of the treadmill did not occur until 1952.
The Bruce Protocol is a diagnostic test created by Dr. Robert Bruce of the University of Washington. It involves having a subject run on a treadmill until they are completely exhausted. This test, which is still in use today, established the treadmill as a means of achieving cardiovascular advantages.
Machines had motors by then. The PaceMaster 600 is the first treadmill designed for home use. It resembles a Zimmer frame and is connected to a moving yoga mat. William Staub, an American engineer, created it in the late 1960s. According to Staub’s 2012 obituary in the New York Times, despite his insistence that the treadmill improved your physical condition and that bad weather was no longer an excuse to not run, by the mid-1980s, only 2,000 of the $399 machines were sold annually.
The number rose to 35,000 by the 1990s, and large brands with more modern equipment were now common. Among them was Life Fitness, with their 9500HR, which, according to the LifeFitness blog, was 30% kinder to joints than running on concrete.
Rival equipment companies born in the 1970s and 1980s, such as the American firms Icon Fitness and NordicTrack, as well as the Italian company Technogym, moved into treadmills. The running machine had reached its tipping point.

Jack the Baboon operated a railroad, earned a living, and never made a mistake
A baboon worked as a signalman for the railroad in the late 1800s. He never made a mistake and worked for the railroad until the day he died.

Blanche Monnier: Imprisoned For 25 Years For Falling in Love
Blanche Monnier, she was a French woman noted for her beauty, she wished to marry an old lawyer that her mother disapproved of, so she locked her in a small dark room in her attic for 25 years.

The History Behind the “No One Dies Alone” Program
In 1986, while doing a night shift at the hospital, Sandra Clarke, a registered nurse, was asked by an elderly patient to stay. She promised to be back after checking on her other patients, but by the time she returned, the gentleman had passed away. Clarke became one of the key figures in launching No One Dies Alone, a program that allows volunteers to sit with terminal patients who have no one else.

Why the Brooklyn Bridge Was Once Crossed by 17 Camels and 21 Elephants
On May 30, 1883, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge was going to collapse caused a stampede, which killed at least at twleve people. To prove the bridge was safe, P.T. Barnum led a parade of 21 elephants over it.

Juliane Koepcke: The Teenager Who Fell 10,000 Feet And Trekked The Jungle to survive
In 1971, a high school student was sucked out of an airplane after it was struck by lightning. She fell 10,000 feet to the ground while still strapped to her chair and survived. Only to endure a 9-day trek to the nearest civilization.

How Greek prime minister in 1830’s tried to spread the potato in Greece
A Greek prime minister in 1830’s tried to spread the potato in Greece but people weren’t interested so he put armed guards in front of shipments of potatoes so people would think they were important. People later started stealing these potatoes a lot which spread the crop to all of Greece.

The Littlest Skyscraper: How J.D. McMahon’s 480-Inch Con Fooled Investors in 1919
In 1919, J.D. McMahon convinced investors to fund a 480-foot skyscraper, but he labeled the plans as 480 inches, building a 40-foot structure instead. After taking $200,000, he won in court since the plans matched what he built.

Titanoboa cerrejonensis, fossils of the world’s largest species of snake
In 2009 in a coal mine of Columbia, scientists discovered fossils of the world’s largest species of snake. The species is called “Titanoboa cerrejonensis,“and it is from around 60 million years ago. It would have had measured about 48 feet long and weighed about 2,500 pounds

Franz Ferdinand’s Assassination that sparked World War I
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the eruption of World War I by early August.

The worst blizzard in recorded history: the 1972 Iran blizzard
The deadliest snowstorm ever recorded occurred in Iran in 1972. It lasted for a week, burying areas in 26 feet of snow and killing over 4,000 people, including the entire populations of three villages.

Nearest Green, America's first known Black master distiller
Nathan "Nearest" Green was an African-American head stiller who is now more frequently referred to as a master distiller. He was renowned for imparting his distilling knowledge to Jack Daniel, the creator of Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey distiller, after Jack Daniel was freed from slavery following the American Civil War.

The Horrific story of Ariel Castro and the Cleveland abduction
Cleveland abduction victims Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight, and Amanda Berry were forced to live in Ariel Castro's house of horrors for 10 years. He raped and beat them until they escaped in 2013.

What Was the Beast of Gévaudan?
Between 1764 and 1767, a mysterious animal called the Beast of Gévaudan terrorized the French village called Gévaudan. It attacked and killed about 100 adults and children. While most believe it was a wolf, some say it may have been a wolf-dog hybrid, hyena or even a lion, but without any genetic evidence, the beast will remain a mystery forever.

How Sleep Deprivation Was Once Used as Torture
Sleep deprivation, long before modern interrogation techniques, was considered a “clean” and effective form of torture—leaving no physical scars, yet breaking minds with haunting silence. Victims endured days and nights without rest, leading to vivid hallucinations, disorientation, and psychological torment. This article traces the dark history of sleep deprivation as a weapon, examines the science behind its effects on the brain, and shines a light on the painful balance between human endurance and cruelty in the annals of coercion.

William James Sidis: The smartest person yet forgotten by people
William James Sidis, who was only 11 years old when he enrolled in Hardvard, finished his primary and secondary schooling in less than a year. He knew eight foreign languages by the age of eight and even invented his own language, "vedergood."

Archaeologists Uncover 2,000-Year-Old Amazonian Cities Using Lidar Technology
Deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, archaeologists have uncovered an ancient network of urban settlements once inhabited by the Upano people about 2,000 years ago. Using cutting-edge lidar technology, these discoveries reveal a highly organized society featuring sophisticated agricultural systems, drainage canals, and extensive road networks. This transformative find challenges long-held assumptions about ancient Amazonian societies and sheds light on a complex civilization thriving in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions.

Henry Ford, The man popularizing the concept of the weekend off
Henry Ford was the first Industrial Giant to give his employees both Saturday and Sunday off in the hope of encouraging more leisurely use of automobiles and thus popularizing the concept of the "weekend."

Sylvan Goldman: The Visionary Who Revolutionized Shopping with the Cart
The inventor of shopping carts, Sylvan Goldman, had to hire several male and female models to push carts around in his store, demonstrate their utility, and explain their use to other customers, due to not catching on initially.

Ancient Jericho: The First Walled City In History
The ancient city of Jericho is the world's oldest walled city, with evidence of stone fortifications dating back nearly 9000 years.

Why This Belgian Bar Makes You Trade Your Shoe for a Beer
To prevent tourists from stealing their beer glasses, some bars in Belgium require people to hand over one of their shoes as a deposit which is then put in a basket and hung from the ceiling. These shoe baskets have also become an attraction.

Reason Behind The Suicide Of Christine Chubbuck Live On Air
Actor Rebecca Hall had serious reservations about tackling the macabre story around why Chubbuck killed herself in 1974. So what changed her mind?

Mother who spent entire life savings for daughter’s cancer treatment won the lottery
A mother won $2 million from a $10 scratch-off lottery ticket after she spent all of her entire life savings to pay her daughter’s cancer treatment. She bought the winning ticket after her daughter’s last cancer treatment.

Atomic Tourism: In the 1950s, nuclear tests in Las Vegas served as a draw for tourists
Between 1950 and 1960, Las Vegas offered “Atomic Tourism” in which guests could watch atomic bombs being tested in the desert as a form of entertainment.

Louis Le Prince Invented the motion picture camera, and then he mysteriously disappeared
Louis Le Prince, the inventor of motion pictures, vanished without a trace in 1890. Thomas Edison quickly claimed the title of "first and sole inventor of cinema," even taking Le Prince's son to court to dispute it. A few years later, the son also dies under mysterious circumstances.

Nuclear bomb accidentally dropped on North Carolina in 196
4 January 1961: The 4241st Strategic Wing's Boeing B-52G-95-BW Stratofortress, serial number 58-0187, was on a 24-hour airborne alert mission off the United States' Atlantic Coast.