Jeremy Bentham's idea of the Panopticon and utilitarianism reminded me of something I watched on a discovery show about treadmills in 19th-century British prisons. Treadmills actually originated in prisons. Treadmills for punishment were installed in 1818 by an English engineer named Sir William Cubitt. When he visited prisons at Bury St Edmunds and Brixton, he observed prisoners lying around in idleness, and thought that it was better "reforming offenders by teaching them habits of industry." Cubitt's treadmills for punishment usually rotated around a horizontal axis, requiring the user to step upwards, like walking up an endless staircase. Resistance to the motion was provided by straps and weights. Penal treadmills remained in use until the second half of the 19th century. Several prisoners stood side-by-side on a wheel, and had to work six or more hours a day, effectively climbing 5,000 to 14,000 vertical feet (1.5 to 4 km). While the purpose was mainly punitive, the most infamous mill at Brixton Prison was installed in 1821 and used to grind grain. It gained notoriety for the cruelty with which it was used, which then became a popular satirical metaphor for early-19th century prisons. The use of treadmills were abolished in Britain in 1902 by the Prisons Act (1898). America adopted the treadwheel in 1822, installing one in New York City. In 1824, prison guard James Hardie credited the device with taming New York's more defiant inmates. He wrote that it was the treadmill's "monotonous steadiness, and not its severity, which constitutes its terror."
The penal treadwheel is just another example of utilitarian belief in maximizing utility and the overall good in 19th-century Great Britain. Although inmates would have had a terrible time, followers of utilitarianism would have considered the treadmill an ingenious machine.
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