FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   >>  
re was no charge, either of felony, misdemeanor, or assault, within the extensive district, of five parishes, from the night before. Crimes of all descriptions had lessened very much; and this decrease, it is said, is owing entirely to the heavy and tedious labor upon the prisoners at the mill. Orders had been given for the erection of several more in England. _Salem Register_, 1822. ------------------------- Description of the Tread Mill _Recommended by the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline._ The annexed engraving exhibits a party of prisoners in the act of working one of the tread wheels of the Discipline Mill invented by Mr. Cubitt, of Ipswich, and recently erected at the House of Correction for the county of Surrey, situated at Brixton. The view is taken from a corner of one of the ten airing yards of the prison, all of which radiate from the Governor's house in the centre, so that from the window of his room _he commands a complete view into all the yards_. A building behind the tread wheel shed is the mill house, containing the necessary machinery for grinding corn and dressing the flour, also rooms for storing it, &c. On the right side of this building a pipe passes up to the roof, on which is a large cast iron reservoir, capable of holding some thousand gallons of water, for the use of the prison. This reservoir is filled by means of forcing pump machinery below, connected with the principal axis which works the machinery of the mill; this axis or shaft passes under the pavement of the several yards, and working by means of universal joints, at every turn communicates with the tread wheel of each class. The wheel, which is represented in the centre of the engraving, is exactly similar to a common water wheel; the treadboards upon its circumference are, however, of considerable length, so as to allow sufficient standing room for a row of from ten to twenty persons upon the wheel. Their weight, the first moving power of the machine, produces the greatest effect when applied upon the circumference of the wheel at or near the level of its axle; to secure therefore this mechanical advantage, a screen of boards is fixed up in an inclined position above the wood, in order to prevent the prisoners from climbing or stepping up h
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   >>  



Top keywords:

prisoners

 

machinery

 

Discipline

 

engraving

 
circumference
 

prison

 

working

 

building

 

passes

 

reservoir


centre

 

capable

 

joints

 
communicates
 
pavement
 
universal
 

thousand

 

connected

 

filled

 

forcing


holding

 

principal

 

gallons

 
secure
 

mechanical

 

advantage

 
screen
 
effect
 

applied

 
boards

prevent
 

climbing

 
stepping
 

inclined

 
position
 

greatest

 

produces

 
considerable
 

length

 

treadboards


represented

 
similar
 

common

 

sufficient

 
moving
 

machine

 

weight

 

standing

 
twenty
 

persons