Treadwheel; treadmill

Japanese: 踏車 - ふみぐるま（英語表記）treadwheel; treadmill

(1) A disciplinary device invented in 1818 by British engineer William Cubitt as a way to make prisoners do useful work. Also called an everlasting staircase. A large cylindrical device, usually with wooden steps along an iron frame around the outside of the cylinder. Some could accommodate as many as 40 prisoners at once. Once the wheel started to turn, the prisoner had to keep stepping on the steps without interruption. The power generated by the wheel was generally used to grind corn or pump water, but it was also used purely as a form of punishment without any practical purpose. It was abolished as a punishment in Britain by the Prisons Act of 1898.
(2) A simple, human-powered water pump. It consists of an impeller and a scabbard. When the impeller is turned by stepping on the blades in sequence, the water between the scabbard and the blades is forced up through the enclosure of the scabbard. It is said to have been invented by Kyoya Shichibei and Kyoya Seibei of Osaka in the early Edo period, and was widely used in rural areas to pump water for rice paddies. Even today, treadmills without scabbards are used in rural areas of Southeast Asia. (→ Water Pump)

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

(1) 1818年，イギリスの技師ウィリアム・キュービットが，囚人に有益な労働をさせる手段として考案した懲罰のための器械。永久階段 everlasting staircaseとも呼ばれる。大きな円筒形の装置で，通常は円筒の外周の鉄枠に沿って木製の踏み板がついている。40人もの囚人が同時に乗れるものもあった。踏車が回り始めると，囚人は間断なく踏み板を踏み続けなければならない。踏車で得られた動力は一般にトウモロコシの製粉や水の汲み上げに使われたが，なんの用途もない純然たる懲罰として用いられることもあった。イギリスでの刑罰としては 1898年刑務所法により廃止された。
(2) 人力の簡易揚水機。羽根車と鞘箱からできており，羽根板を順次踏みながら羽根車を回すと，鞘箱と羽根の間の水が，鞘箱の囲いの中を押し上げられるようになっている。江戸時代初期に大坂の京屋七兵衛と京屋清兵衛が考案したといわれ，農村で水田の水の汲み上げに広く使われた。東南アジアの農村では今日も鞘箱のない踏車を使っている。（→揚水機）

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