Imagens da página
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]
[graphic]

THE Tread-Mill at Brixton, that terror to evil-doers," has excited so much attention, that the Proprietors of THE MIRROR think a correct, view and description of it, cannot fail of being acceptable to their readers. The treadmill is the invention of Mr. Cubitt*, of Ipswich, and is considered a great improvement in Prison discipline; so much so, that since its beneficial effects have been experienced at Brixton, mills of a similar construction have been erected at Cold-Bath-fields, and several places in the country.

The above engraving exhibits a party of prisoners in the act of working the Brixton tread-mill, of which it is a correct representation. 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

This gentleman's name has given rise to some jokes on the subject, among such of the prisoners as can laugh at their own crimes, who say, they are punished by the cubit. VOL. I.

room commands a complete view into all the yards. A building behind the tread-wheel shed is the inill-house, coutaining the necessary machinery for grinding corn and dressing the flour, also rooms for stoving it, &c. On the right side of this building a pipe is seen passing 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.

This wheel, which is represented in the centre of the engraving, is exactly similar to a common water-wheel; the tread-boards 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

B

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 wheel, in order to prevent the prisoners from climbing or stepping up higher than the level required. A hand-rail is seen fixed upon this screen, by holding which they retain their upright position upon the revolving wheel; the nearest side of which is exposed to view in the plate, In order to represent its cylindrical form much more distinctly than could otherwise have been done. In the original, however, both sides are closely boarded up, so that the prisoners have no access to the interior of the wheel, and all risk of injury whatever is prevented. By means of steps, the gang of prisoners ascend at one end, and when the requisite number range themselves upon the wheel, it commences its revolution. The effort, then, to every individual is simply that of ascending an endless fight of steps, their combined weight acting upon every successive stepping board, precisely as a stream of water upon the float-boards of a water-wheel. During this operation, each prisoner gradually advances from the end at which he mounted towards the opposite end of the wheel; from whence the last man, taking his turn, descends for rest (see the Plate), another prisoner immediately mounting as before to fill up the number required, without stopping the machine. The interval of rest may then be portioned to each man, by regulating the number of those required to work the wheel with the whole number of the gang; thus, if twenty out of twenty-four are obliged to be upon the wheel, it will give to each man intervals of rest amounting to 12 minutes in every hour of labour. Again, hy vary ing the number of men upon the wheel, or the work inside the mill, so as to increase or diminish its velocity, the degree of hard labour or exercise to the prisoner may also be regulated. At Brixton, the diameter of the wheel being five feet, and revolving twice in a minute, the space stepped over by each man is 2193 feet, or 731 yards per hour.

To provide regular and suitable employment for prisoners sentenced to hard labour, has been attended with considerable difficulty if many parts of the kingdom the invention of the Discipline Mill has removed the difficulty,

and it is confidently hoped, that as its advantages and effects become better known, the introduction of the Mill will be universal in Houses of Correction. As a species of prison labour, it is remarkable for its simplicity. It requires no previous instruction; no taskmaster is necessary to watch over the work of the prisoners, neither are materials or instruments put into their hands that are liable to waste or misapplication, or subject to wear and tear: the internal machinery of the Mill, being inaccessible to the prisoners, is placed under the management of skilful and proper persons, one or two at most being required to attend a process which keeps in steady and constant employment from ten to two hundred or more prisoners at one and the same time; which can be suspended and renewed as often as the regulations of the prison render it necessary, and which imposes equality of labour on every individual employed, no one upon the wheel being able in the least degree to avoid his proportion.

The arrangement of the wheels in the yards radiating from the governor's central residence, places the prisoners thus employed under very good inspection-an object known to be of the utmost importance in prison management. At the Brixton House of Correction, with the exception of the very few confined by the casualties of sickness or debility, all the prisoners are steadily employed under the eye of the governor during a considerable part of the day.

The classification also of the prisoners, according to offences, &c. may be adhered to in the adoption of these discipline wheels; the same wheel, or the same connected shafts, can be easily made to pass into distinct compartments, in which the several classes may work in separate parties. In the prison from which the annexed drawing is taken, a tread-wheel is erected in each of the six yards, by which the inconvenience and risk of removing a set of prisoners from one part of the prison to another is obviated.

As the mechanism of these TreadMills is not of a complicated nature, the regular employment they afford is not likely to be frequently suspended for want of repairs to the machinery; and should the supply of corn, &c. at any time fall off, it is not necessary that the labour of the prisoners should be suspended, nor can they be aware of the circumstance: the supply of hard

labour may therefore be considered as almost unfailing.

It is unnecessary to occupy much time in proving the advantage which the invention of the Stepping-Mill presents as a species of preventive punishment. Although but very recently introduced, and hitherto but sparingly brought into action, the effects of its discipline have in every instance proved eminently useful in decreasing the number of commitments. As a corrective punishment, the discipline of the Stepping-Mill has had a most salutary effect upon the prisoners, and is not likely to be easily forgotten; while it is an occupation which by no means interferes with, nor is calculated to lessen the value of, those branches of prison regulation which provide for the moral and religious improvement of the criminal.

By an excellent contrivance, when the machinery of the mill has attained its proper speed, certain balls rise by their centrifugal force, so as to draw a box below the reach of a bell-handle, which will then cease to ring a bell, placed in some convenient situation for the purpose. But should the men at the wheels cease to keep up the requiBite speed in the mill-work, the balls will descend, and a projecting pin on the box, striking the handle, placed in the proper situation for that purpose, will continue to ring the bell, till they go on again properly; and by this means, a certain check will be kept on the labourers, and the governor or taskmaster apprised, even at a distance, that the full work is not performed.

SPIRIT OF THE

Public Journals.

THE NEW MARRIAGE ACT.
Cases for the Opinion of

DR. LUSHINGTON.

[blocks in formation]

course,

That a cross before marriage is cart before horse.

My female complainants are equally busy,

And ply me with plaints till I'm really
dizzy.

Miss Struggle, aged fifty, still baiting
Love's trap,

Asks who keeps the children should
Hymen's chain snap.

Miss Blue, equi-wrinkled, has dipp'd
me in ink,

With doubts on divorce à mens. and è
vinc.

Aunt Jane understands it: her niece
Says she cannot conceive-others say
Mary Anne
that she can ;

And gladly would hie to St. George's,
full trot,

To clench Cupid's nail while the iron is

hot.

To flourish my flail, feather mounted, and draw

A handful of wheat from a barn full of straw;

DEAR Doctor, in vain, by September set Five Cases I've hit on, in Cupid's dofree,

Have I, a poor Proctor, eloped toward

the sea.

This new Marriage Act, which my Lord
Ellenborough

Has whisk'd through the House like a
colt o'er the Curragh,
Has set the pent fears of my clients at
large-

I'm boarded by dunces, like Pope in

his barge.

My bag won't contain half the cases they draw,

The Church can't absolve, so they fly to the Law.

minion,

On which I request your advice and
opinion.

Case one.-Kitty Crocodile married
Ned Bray,

And swore she would honour, and love,
and obey.

The honeymoon over, thorns mingie
with roses,

And Ned's upper head is the picture of
Moses.

Love, honour, obey, toll a funeral
knell,

Up start, in their place, hate, disdain, and rebel.

[blocks in formation]

In temper both fired: 'twas a word and a blow:

(See Dibdin's Reports, Captain Wattle and Roe,)

And both, while the stool is at either head flung,

Try to tear with their teeth what they tied with their tongue.

Please to study the Act for this couple, and tell 'em

If they can't be replaced "statu quo ante bellum."

Case five.-Doctor Swapp'em, allied to a peer,

Has farm'd his great tithes for five thousand a year.

He never is vex'd, but when pheasants are wild;

And got a rich helpmate who bore him no child.

The curate of Swapp'em is pious and thrifty,

His annual stipend in pounds mounts to fifty;

His helpmate in annual parturience is

seen,

His children already amount to fif

teen.

While keeping the dictum Ecclesiæ in view,

(God never sends mouths without sending bread too)

You'll please to advise, if the Act has a clause

To marshal the bread, or to average the jaws.

But see, while my pen your Opinion implores,

Fresh couples, love-stricken, besiege the church doors.

The porch of St. Anne's ninety couple disgorges,

Thrice ninety stand fix'd on the steps of St. George's;

The fresh and the jaded promiscuously mingle,

Some seek to get married, some seek to get single:

While those, sage Civilian, you're fettering, please

To hit on a scheme to emancipate these.

Teach mortals, who find, like the man who slew Turnus,

A marvellous facile descent to Avernus, Like him, back their Pluto-bound steps to recall,

And breathe the light æther of Bachelor's Hall:

Do this, through my medium, dear Doctor, and then

Ere Easter, my life on't, we both are made men;

« AnteriorContinuar »