Penal treadmill
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A penal treadmill was a treadwheel or treadmill with steps set into two cast iron wheels. These drove a shaft that could be used to mill corn, pump water, or connect to a large fan for resistance.
Treadmill at Brixton Prison in London designed by William Cubitt, c. 1817
Penal Treadmill, Jamaica, c. 1837
British penal treadwheel in Coldbath Fields Prison, 1864
Pentonville Prison Treadmill, 1895
Crank machine
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The crank machine was a penal labour device used in England in the 19th century. It consisted of a hand-turned crank which forced four large cups or ladles through sand inside a drum, doing nothing us
Penal treadmill
…hard labour had to spend at least three months of his sentence in Labour Order. This consisted primarily of the treadmill or, as an alternative, the crank machine. This consisted of a small wheel, like the wheel of a paddle steamer, and a handle turned by the prisoner made it revolve in a box partially filled…
Cell, with Prisoner at Crank-Labour, In the Surrey House of Correction, 1851, illustration from London Labour and the London Poor by Henry Mayhew
Crank machine model, from the Oxford Prison & Castle museum.