Here's a fact I bet you didn't know. The first treadmill was made around 1875. Of course it wasn't meant for people but animals. When the critters would walk on the treads it would make a line shaft rotate and that could then power a belt that would be hooked up to machines like butter churns. Some treadmills were so big that they could take a team of horses that would drive threshing machines. For our outreach program in the spring we are going to focus on livestock and how they were used on a farm. To illustrate their use in supplying power we found a mint condition treadmill. I wanted to see if my dog Carly could power it but she is no Astro Jetson so it was bust.
