Ox Treadmill, Upper Italy, ca. 1600
Ox treadmills were used to drive corn mills. Two oxen can work on the slanting plate. The animals are roped and forced to walk up the plate all the time. In so doing the plate turns away beneath them. A wooden gear system transmits the rotary movement to the millstone inside the building. Until the beginning of the 19th century ox-driven treadmills were used particularly in the Po valley as the head of water did not suffice for water mills.
Picture from a model with Deutsches Museum in Munich. Model after a copper engraving from Vittorio Zonca, Novo teatro di machine et edificii, Padua 1607.
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Photo collection by Th.Schiöler 
