The treadmill's dark and twisted past - Conor Heffernan

Translator: Aida Zečkanović Reviewer: Matej Divjak

Neprestani zamolkli udarci pod tvojimi nogami,

The constant thud underneath your feet,

the constrained space,

omejen prostor

and the monotony of going nowhere fast.

in monotonost premikanja na mestu.

It feels like hours have gone by, but it's only been eleven minutes,

Zdi se, da so pretekle že ure, pa vendar je minilo šele enajst minut

in sprašuješ se:

and you wonder,

"Zakaj se mučim?

"Why am I torturing myself?

This thing has got to be considered a cruel and unusual punishment."

To se zdi kot kruta in nenavadna kazen."

Actually, that's exactly what it is, or was.

V bistvu pa to dejansko drži, oziroma je držalo.

You see, in the 1800s,

Vidite, okoli leta 1800

treadmills were created to punish English prisoners.

so tekalno stezo izumili, da bi kaznovali angleške zapornike.

Takrat je bil angleški kaznilniški sistem grozljiv.

At the time, the English prison system was abysmally bad.

Execution and deportation were often the punishments of choice,

Najpogostejši kazni sta bili usmrtitev in izgon,

tisti, ki so bili za rešetkami, pa so cele ure presedeli v osami v umazanih kletkah.

and those who were locked away faced hours of solitude in filthy cells.

So social movements led by religious groups, philanthropies,

Družbena gibanja, ki so jih vodile verske skupine, filantropi

and celebrities, like Charles Dickens,

in znane osebnosti, kot Charles Dickens,

sought to change these dire conditions and help reform the prisoners.

so si prizadevala spremeniti te grozljive pogoje in reformirati zapornike.

When their movement succeeded,

Po zaslugi tega gibanja

entire prisons were remodeled and new forms of rehabilitation,

so bili zapori v celoti preurejeni in uvedene nove oblike rehabilitacije,

such as the treadmill, were introduced.

kot na primer tekalna steza.

Here's how the original version,

Takole je delovala originalna različica,

invented in 1818 by English engineer Sir William Cubitt, worked.

ki jo je izumil angleški inženir, Sir William Cubitt.

Prisoners stepped on 24 spokes of a large paddle wheel.

Zaporniki so stopali na 24 prečk na velikem lopatnem kolesu.

Ko se je kolo obračalo,

As the wheel turned,

the prisoner was forced to keep stepping up or risk falling off,

je moral zapornik stopiti na višjo prečko, ali pa tvegati padec,

similar to modern stepper machines.

podobno kot pri modernih steperjih.

Meanwhile, the rotation made gears pump out water,

Medtem pa je obračanje kolesa črpalo vodo,

crush grain,

mlelo žito

or power mills,

ali poganjalo mline.

Od tod prihaja tudi originalno ime, ki pomeni "stopajoči mlin."

which is where the name "treadmill" originated.

These devices were seen as a fantastic way of whipping prisoners into shape,

Verjeli so, da so bile te naprave čudovit način za krotenje zapornikov,

and that added benefit of powering mills

dodatna prednost poganjanja mlinov pa je

helped to rebuild a British economy decimated by the Napoleonic Wars.

pomagala obnoviti britansko gospodarstvo, ki so jo zdesetkale Napoleonske vojne.

It was a win for all concerned, except the prisoners.

To je bil uspeh za vse udeležene, razen za zapornike.

It's estimated that, on average,

Ocenjujemo, da so zaporniki

prisoners spent six or so hours a day on treadmills,

preživeli v povprečju 6 ur na dan na tekoči stezi,

the equivalent of climbing 5,000 to 14,000 feet.

kar ustreza vzponu od 1.524 m do 4.267 m.

14,000 feet is roughly Mount Everest's halfway point.

4.267 m je približno polovica višine Mount Everesta.

Imagine doing that five days a week with little food.

Predstavljajte si, da to počnete 5 dni v tednu, z zelo borno prehrano.

Cubitt's idea quickly spread across the British Empire and America.

Cubittova ideja se je hitro razširila po Britanskem imperiju in v Ameriko.

Within a decade of its creation,

Desetletje po njenem odkritju,

over 50 English prisons boasted a treadmill,

je imelo več kot 50 angleških zaporov tekalno stezo

and America, a similar amount.

in podobno število tudi v Ameriki.

Unsurprisingly, the exertion combined with poor nutrition

Nepresenetljivo sta napor in slaba prehrana

saw many prisoners suffer breakdowns and injuries,

povzročila številne poškodbe in živčne zlome zapornikov.

not that prison guards seemed to care.

Vendar paznikom ni bilo mar.

In 1824, New York prison guard James Hardie credited the device

Leta 1824 je newyorški paznik James Hardie napravi pripisal zaslugo

with taming his more boisterous inmates, writing that

za ukrotitev tudi najbolj uporniških zapornikov, ko je zapisal, da je:

the "monotonous steadiness, and not its severity...constitutes its terror,"

"monotona konstantnost in ne neizprosnost tisto, kar jo naredi tako grozno,"

a quote many still agree with.

s čimer se mnogi še danes strinjajo.

Tekalne steze so se v Angliji obdržale do konca 19. stoletja,

And treadmills lasted in England until the late 19th century,

when they were banned for being excessively cruel

ko so jih leta 1898 v Zakonu o zaporih

under the Prison's Act of 1898.

prepovedali zaradi njihove prekomerne krutosti.

But of course the torture device returned with a vengeance,

Ampak ta mučilna naprava je seveda doživela svoj preporod,

this time targeting the unsuspecting public.

tokrat namenjena nič hudega sluteči javnosti.

In 1911, a treadmill patent was registered in the U.S.,

Leta 1911 je bil v ZDA registriran patent za tekalno tezo

and by 1952, the forerunner for today's modern treadmill had been created.

in do leta 1952 je bila že ustvarjena predhodnica moderne tekalne steze.

When the jogging craze hit the U.S. in the 1970s,

S porastom priljubljenosti jogginga v ZDA v 70. letih,

the treadmill was thrust back into the limelight

je bila tekalna steza znova v središču pozornosti,

as an easy and convenient way to improve aerobic fitness,

kot preprost in prikladen način za izboljšanje aerobne kondicije

and lose unwanted pounds,

in izgubo odvečnih kilogramov.

which, to be fair, it's pretty good at doing.

Pri čemer, moramo priznati, je tudi zelo uspešna.

And the machine has maintained its popularity since.

Naprava je ohranila svojo priljubljenost vse do danes.

So the next time you voluntarily subject yourself to what was once

Ko se naslednjič prostovoljno podvržete nečemu, kar je nekoč veljalo

a cruel and unusual punishment,

za kruto in nenavadno kazen,

just be glad you can control when you'll hop off.

bodite veseli, da lahko nadzorujete, kdaj boste skočili dol.