The Treadmill

The Treadmill

Before they found their way into gyms, treadmills had a much darker history. In the 19th Century, they could most commonly be found in prisons.


In contrast to their modern track record of improving health, the Victorians saw treadmills as a way to explicitly inflict pain and punishment. A tool for ‘grinding men good’ through gruelling hours of physical activity.


What were the moral rationalisations of this corporal punishment? Who was the inventor responsible for these machines? And what cautionary tales can we learn from this punishing chapter of penal history?


We answer all these questions and more on the show today with the help of Rosaline Crone, a Senior Lecturer in History at the Open University who specialised in nineteenth-century criminal justice history.


For more History Hit content, subscribe to our newsletters here.


If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today!


To download, go to Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(160)

Things vs. Humans: the spiteful behaviour of inanimate objects

Things vs. Humans: the spiteful behaviour of inanimate objects

If you can never connect to a printer, if furniture jumps out to stub your toe, if when you do the dishes the water jumps out the sink to soak you - then you are victim of the inanimate malice of thin...

27 Sep 202330min

First Ever Submarine

First Ever Submarine

400 years ago on the River Thames a mad genius showed off the world's first submarine. A crowd of thousands including King James watched as Cornelis Drebbel disappeared beneath the murky water, only r...

24 Sep 202339min

Inventing Fire: the First Spark of Humanity

Inventing Fire: the First Spark of Humanity

Fire is the unsung hero of human evolution. We could not have turned into the big-brained, deep-thinking animals we are on raw food alone. The moment two million years ago that our forebears first sta...

20 Sep 202336min

Rise and Fall of High Heels

Rise and Fall of High Heels

For most of their history, High Heels were resolutely masculine. The most manly of manly footwear. How did they turn into burning icons of femininity? And now that the heyday of women's high heels is ...

17 Sep 202347min

Sunglasses

Sunglasses

What do all incredibly cool people have in common? They wear Sunglasses. Whether you're Miles Davis or Audrey Hepburn, James Dean or Bob Dylan, your sunglasses are never far away.Who invented sunglass...

13 Sep 202330min

Deep-Sea Submersibles & the Titan Disaster

Deep-Sea Submersibles & the Titan Disaster

The Titan submersible implosion was a tragic example of marine exploration going wrong. Today Dallas speaks to one of the world's leading marine archaeologists about Titan and the history of deep-sea ...

10 Sep 202335min

Patriarchy

Patriarchy

Why are men in charge? Who invented Patriarchy?Was it chest-thumping primate ancestors? Was it spear-wielding hunter gatherers? Was it at dawn of agriculture and the creation of property? Or was it so...

6 Sep 202347min

Donald Hebb: Brainwashing in the Cold War

Donald Hebb: Brainwashing in the Cold War

In 1950, a new word ‘brainwashing’ entered the English language. From the paranoia of the Cold War a new type of Evil Scientist had emerged — the Mind Controller. But was there any truth to the fear?I...

3 Sep 202331min

Populært innen Vitenskap

fastlegen
tingenes-tilstand
jss
forskningno
sinnsyn
vett-og-vitenskap-med-gaute-einevoll
rekommandert
liberal-halvtime
dekodet-2
villmarksliv
rss-nysgjerrige-norge
rss-inn-til-kjernen-med-sunniva-rose
diagnose
rss-rekommandert
fjellsportpodden
rss-overskuddsliv
nevropodden
rss-kunstig-intelligens-med-elisabeth-maren-og-morten
rss-paradigmepodden
smart-forklart