Inventor William Cubitt subscribed to the “no pain, no gain” philosophy. His “Tread-Wheel,” which was described in the 1822 edition of Rules for the Government of Gaols, Houses of Correction, and Penitentiaries (published by the British Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders), was presented as a way for prisoners to put in an honest day’s labor. Prisoners used treadmills in groups, with up to 24 convicts working a single machine, usually grinding grain or pumping water, sometimes for as long as 8 hours at a stretch. They’d do so “by means of steps … the gang of prisoners ascending at one end … their combined weight acting upon every successive stepping board, precisely as a stream upon the float-boards of a water wheel

this explains a lot.

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