Prison labour, &c. : correspondence and communications addressed to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, concerning the introduction of tread-mills into prisons, with other matters connected with the subject of prison discipline / by Sir John Cox Hippisley.

  • Sir John Hippisley, 1st Baronet
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prison labour, &c. : correspondence and communications addressed to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, concerning the introduction of tread-mills into prisons, with other matters connected with the subject of prison discipline / by Sir John Cox Hippisley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cumstances, to advert somewhat to its history. In a publication including the rules for the government of Gaols drawn up and published by the Society for the improvement of Prison Discipline, in 1821, the suffrages of the public are very pointedly solicited in favour of the Tread-Mill, which is described as~“ a stepping Mill “ of a superior description, and which the Committee <C CANNOT TOO EARNESTLY RECOMMEND FOR THE EM' te ployment of Prisoners, having lately been con- “ structed on very ingenious principles by Mr. Cubitt, (( Civil Engineer, of Ipswich/’ In the Appendix, a description is given of a Corn and Flour Mill, and also of a Pump Mill, adapted for the employment of Prisoners* and stated to be invented by Mr. William Cubitt, and extracted from a report addressed by him to the Com¬ mittee of the Society. Mr. Cubitt speaking of the object of his plan, states it as the adoption—“ of a hind of hard labour, to which 6' every one would have a natural dislike, and yet such t: as every one could perform without previous instruc- 6i tion.’'’—His description is also illustrated by engrav¬ ings of the machinery. In another publication, in 18]9, a description of the Gaol at Bury, drawn up by Mr. Orridge, the Governor, under the immediate sanction of a highly meritorious member of the Prison Discipline Society (T. F. Buxton, Esq. M. P-) it is announced that the Magistrates of Suffolk had applied to Mr. Cubitt for an additional Mill of his construction, and an extract of a report, from Mr. Cubitt, is published, in which he represents “ the great “ peculiarity of his invention to be that of placing 6< the men to act on the outside, instead of walk-
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