# Old Timey "Hard Labor" Prison Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 26, 2007, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-hard-labor-prison-question/393787 "2007-02-26T22:18:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-hard-labor-prison-question/393787/1 "2007-02-26T22:18:17Z")
I was watching the movie _Wilde_ last night (about Oscar Wilde). He was sentenced to 2 years “hard labor” in prison between 1895 and 1897. Twice during the prison scenes they showed him and his fellow inmates walking on what seemed like “steps to nowhere” - an escalator (or a ferry wheel?) of sorts which was much wider than it was tall. The guys stood in separate “stalls” against a wall and continually walked up these “steps” that didn’t go anywhere. They walked with their hands on the walls. Any idea what this was? According to Wikipedia he was at Pentonville, Wadsworth and Reading prisons in England but none of those prison’s articles say what kind of device this was and what purpose it served. If no one has any clue from my description I’ll try to get a screen cap later. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-hard-labor-prison-question/393787/2 "2007-02-26T22:21:53Z")
You make it sound like a hamster wheel, with the hamsters (inmates) standing on the outside, instead of the inside, of the wheel. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-hard-labor-prison-question/393787/3 "2007-02-26T22:28:00Z")
There’s a photo that I remember from my dad’s old encyclopedia set showing a group of prisoners on just such a contraption. Photo was from the late 1800s or early 1900s and the device was used for punishment. Sort of like making them run laps, I guess. It was in an article on prison reform. Anyhow I don’t recall the name of the thing, but it was evidently in use around that time. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-hard-labor-prison-question/393787/4 "2007-02-26T22:31:48Z")
Some devices like this were used to generate energy to run machines (e.g. workhouses), but that wouldn’t make much sense in the post-industrial 1890’s. By that time, steam engines would be much more effective. Even before then, draft animals would be much more suited than humans. So it does sound like it would strictly be for punishment. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-hard-labor-prison-question/393787/5 "2007-02-26T22:33:54Z")
[A Treadwheel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treadwheel), but the cites in wikipedia seem to indicate that Wilde would have been unlikely to have used one. I think they had one on display in Lincoln castle (or maybe Bodmin Gaol) - I’ve seen them all :dubious: Si ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-hard-labor-prison-question/393787/6 "2007-02-26T23:04:58Z")
Their purpose was punishment. The idea was it would keep the prisoners busy, while making them too tired to argue with guards. [According to this site](http://www.schools.bedfordshire.gov.uk/gaol/background/prisonconditions.htm): > [@](#): > > In many prisons there was a tread wheel on which prisoners had to climb. Often about ten prisoners could climb side by side. (provide link to design) Originally these had produced something, e.g. turned millstones to grind flour, which was supposed to give the prisoners a “sense of purpose”. > > The wheel in Bedford Gaol was built in 1816 to grind corn, and the prisoners were paid at first. For ten hours every day the convicts and untried prisoners climbed the height of Mount Everest, with some rest periods during which they still had to walk round in a circle unless they were eating. They were not allowed to talk to each other while they climbed. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2007, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-hard-labor-prison-question/393787/7 "2007-02-27T02:38:51Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] I was watching the movie _Wilde_ last night (about Oscar Wilde). He was sentenced to 2 years “hard labor” in prison between 1895 and 1897. Twice during the prison scenes they showed him and his fellow inmates walking on what seemed like “steps to nowhere” - an escalator (or a ferry wheel?) of sorts which was much wider than it was tall. The guys stood in separate “stalls” against a wall and continually walked up these “steps” that didn’t go anywhere. They walked with their hands on the walls. Any idea what this was? According to Wikipedia he was at Pentonville, Wadsworth and Reading prisons in England but none of those prison’s articles say what kind of device this was and what purpose it served. If no one has any clue from my description I’ll try to get a screen cap later. [/QUOTE] At a prison museum (one of two) I went to on a trip to Australia, they had a small model of this. And I thought, “That’s like that thing in _Wilde_” From what I remember reading it punishment/hard labor. Just a miserable thing a person in jail/gaol had to do. I won’t even tell you how long it took me years and years ago to realized that jail and gaol were the same thing. I kept thinking, “What’s this gay-oll thing?”