Treadwheel

Uses of treadwheels included raising water, to power cranes, or grind grain.

They were used extensively in the Greek and Roman world, such as in the reverse overshot water-wheel used for dewatering purposes.

There is a literary reference to one in 1225,[1] and one treadwheel crane survives at Chesterfield, Derbyshire and is housed in the Museum.

Penal treadmills were used in prisons during the early Victorian period in the UK as a form of punishment.

According to The Times in 1827, and reprinted in William Hone's Table-Book in 1838, the amount prisoners walked per day on average varied, from the equivalent of 6,600 vertical feet at Lewes to as much as 17,000 vertical feet in ten hours during the summertime at Warwick gaol.