From Prison Punishment to a Gym Near You

By Suzanne Norquist

When I work out on the treadmill or Stairmaster, I find myself wondering who invented this unique form of torture. No matter how long I labor, I never get anywhere.

Prisoners in the nineteenth-century would have agreed with that sentiment. For a time, stair-stepper-type treadmills were used to reform (or punish) convicts.

From antiquity, treadmills captured muscle energy for pumping, grinding, and kneading. Three kinds of treadmills existed; those where someone walked in a circle pushing a bar, those where someone climbed in place (think stair-stepper), and a combination of the two with a sloped moving platform.

In 1818, treadmills were introduced into the British prison system as a form of hard labor. Before this, prisoners had occasionally powered treadmills to pump water or grind grain. The new treadmills didn’t produce anything but instead inflicted punishment—many prison sentences prescribed ‘hard labor.’ Straps and weights provided resistance without using the power for anything constructive.

Sir William Cubit, who introduced the devices, hoped to reform offenders by teaching them habits of industry. No need to let them lie around all day.

Original prison treadmills were human-sized cylinders with steps on the outside. The prisoner would step on the wheel, and it would rotate down, causing the man to take a step up—a never-ending staircase. The cylinders were long enough for 18 to 25 men to work the wheel at the same time. Often wooden partitions separated the prisoners.

The men walked in silence for 6-10 hours a day. A prisoner could climb more than half the height of Mount Everest in that time.

By 1865, every male prisoner sentenced to hard labor spent time on the treadmill. In 1895, there were 39 treadmills used in English prisons.

Not to be left behind, a few American prisons adopted the treadmill in the early 1820s. However, they instilled fear in citizens. And often a large audience would jeer at the prisoners as they performed this task. As a result, only four were built, and they were soon abandoned.

America took a more civilized approach to prison reform, requiring labor that produced things, such as handicrafts. This left the person with a trade. Treadmills cultivated no such skills.

By 1900, treadmills were phased out in British prisons in favor of other kinds of activities.

The first patent for an exercise treadmill “training machine” wasn’t issued until 1913. Early treadmills and exercise bikes were used to diagnose heart and lung diseases. The first one for home use, the PaceMaster 600, was developed in the late 1960s.

So there you have it, from prison punishment to a gym near you. At least you don’t have to spend 6-10 hours a day on that machine. Although, if you did, you might be ready to climb Mount Everest.

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”Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection

Four historical romances celebrating the arts of sewing and quilting.

 

Mending Sarah’s Heart by Suzanne Norquist

Rockledge, Colorado, 1884

Sarah seeks a quiet life as a seamstress. She doesn’t need anyone, especially her dead husband’s partner. If only the Emporium of Fashion would stop stealing her customers, and the local hoodlums would leave her sons alone. When she rejects her husband’s share of the mine, his partner Jack seeks to serve her through other means. But will his efforts only push her further away?

For a Free Preview, click here: http://a.co/1ZtSRkK

Suzanne Norquist is the author of two novellas, “A Song for Rose” in A Bouquet of Brides Collection and “Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection. Everything fascinates her. She has worked as a chemist, professor, financial analyst and even earned a doctorate in economics. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining engineer husband and has two grown children. When not writing, she explores the mountains, hikes, and attends kickboxing class. 

She authors a blog entitled, Ponderings of a BBQ Ph.D.

ALL SKATE!

As a kid I loved going to the local roller skating rink. I would have lived there 24/7 if I could. I couldn’t get enough. Sadly, I was a child with little to no money, so I was able to only go occasionally. I would go with my sister and my friends. I skated every minute I could. Was I an awesome skater? Not even close, but I had fun, fun, fun. 

Until recently, I never really thought about when roller skating began. The 70s? The 60s? The 50s? If you guessed the 40s, give yourself a gold star. That would be the 1740s.

In 1743, a London stage performance had the first recorded use of roller skates. These early roller skates were inline style with the wheels taking the place of the blades on ice skates. These skates worked well to simulate ice skating on a stage where having a large, frozen pool of water would be difficult.

I always thought that inline skates came after the four-wheeled side-by-side ones. But apparently they came before, in the middle of, and after.

In 1760, Belgian John Joseph Merlin invented a primitive inline skate with metal wheels. They were hard to steer and had no braking ability. (No brakes! Were they crazy?)

In 1818, roller skates made an appearance on a Berlin ballet stage.

In 1819, Frenchman M. Petitbled had the first patent for an inline roller-skate design. They weren’t very maneuverable, straight ahead or a wide, sweeping turn. (So people were using these early inline skates for seventy-five years or so before someone patented one of them?) Regardless of patents, people loved skating. Inventors worked for the next several decades to improve roller skates.

Having gained popularity, the first public roller skating rink was opened in London in 1857. (With skates that were difficult to turn and stop? I’m a bit surprised.)

In 1863, James Leonard Plimpton designed the first turning, duel-axel, four-wheeled skate, a pair of wheels side-by-side in front and in back, often referred to as a quad-skate. (I guess because the early inline skates had only two wheels.) By shifting a skater’s weight from one side to the other, the skater could turn. (Now we’re talking.) These proved to be such a success that the first U.S. public roller skating rink opened in New York City in 1866 by Plimpton himself. 

In 1876, the toe stop was patented. Skaters could now stop by tipping the skate forward onto the toe. (Now, we’re talking. I always used my toe stop a lot.) 

In the 1880s, America mass-produced roller skates and public rinks were popping up everywhere. People loved this form of entertainment and exercise.

In 1900, an inline skate with two wheels was patented by Peck& Snyder Company.

In 1902, 7,000 people attended the opening of the Chicago Coliseum public rink. (That would have been very crowded. I think I would have waited for a less busy time.)

In 1911, Paris hosted a 24-hour roller skating endurance competition. (That could have been fun.)

Various forms of roller skating and roller skates have come and gone over the decades; in rinks, on the streets, inline, quad, skates you could strap to your regular shoes. In recent years, there were even regular shoes with a wheel in each heel so a person could walk or roll. Inline skates became very popular in recent decades, but the quad-skates are making a comeback.

Whether inline skates or quad-skates, people have loved skating for over 250 years. I never would have guessed roller skating went back so far.

I tried inline skates as an adult but didn’t like them. I felt as though my ankles were too weak or something. I prefer the old fashion quad-skates. But then inline skates are even more old fashion.

Did you roller skate as a kid? Do you still? Do you prefer inline or quad?

NEW!
THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT ~ A sweet historical romance that will tug at your heart. This is book 1 in the Quilting Circle series.

Washington State, 1893
     When Lily Lexington Bremmer arrives in Kamola with her young son, she’s reluctant to join the social center of her new community, the quilting circle, but the friendly ladies pull her in. She begins piecing a sunshine and shadows quilt because it mirrors her life. She has a secret that lurks in the shadows and hopes it doesn’t come out into the light. Dark places in her past are best forgotten, but her new life is full of sunshine. Will her secrets cast shadows on her bright future?
     Widower Edric Hammond and his father are doing their best to raise his two young daughters. He meets Lily and her son when they arrive in town and helps her find a job and a place to live. Lily resists Edric’s charms at first but finds herself falling in love with this kind, gentle man and his two darling daughters. Lily has stolen his heart with her first warm smile, but he’s cautious about bringing another woman into his girls’ lives due to the harshness of their own mother.
     Can Edric forgive Lily her past to take hold of a promising chance at love?
THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT is now available at a low, pre-order price. This book releases in ebook on July 1, and will be out in paperback by mid-June.

#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance

MARY DAVIS is a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January, Courting Her Amish Heart in March, The Widow’s Plight in July, Courting Her Secret Heart September, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-three years and two cats. She has three adult children and one incredibly adorable grandchild. Find her online at:
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