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 revolutions. The effort, then, to every individual
is simply that of ascending an endless flight 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,
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-four are obliged to be upon the wheel, it
will give to each man intervals of rest amounting to twelve
minutes in every hour of labor.
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