Page 69 - All About History - Issue 29-15

Through History

The cat might have
got its name from CAT O’ NINE TAILS 1695
the scratches it left
on a man’s back The cat was a multi-thonged whip made infamous
by its use in the Royal Navy. Sailors were typically
flogged on deck in full sight of the watching
crew in order to emphasise to the watchers that
discipline must be maintained. The severity of
the punishment depended on exactly how
many lashes were ordered – too many and
a sailor might die as wounds became
infected. Each cat was only used
Tom
Stacey once; afterwards a new one was
1930-PRESENT, BRITISH made and placed in a red bag.
In 1965, writer Tom Stacey was Every sailor wanted to
imprisoned in India while working as avoid being the next
a foreign correspondent. It sparked a one who would let
deep interest in the judicial system for
the rest of his life. He was instrumental the cat of the
in persuading the British government bag.
to adopt electronic tagging in
1999 – now 100,000 are
used each year.
ELECTRONIC TAG 1983
American prisons were
quick to adopt treadmills, The electronic tag was designed to enfo
saying they could tame arrest and aid rehabilitation, preventing
the most difficult of New from moving more than a specified Electronic tags are
York’s prisoners often nicknamed
TREADWHEEL 1818 distance from a certain point. The tag, ‘Rolexes’ by the
offenders who
usually worn on an ankle, sends a
The treadwheel was a staircase rotating around signal to a base unit. If the tag moves have to wear them
a horizontal axis, requiring the user to endlessly too far away or is tampered with,
step upwards – the human equivalent of a it sends a warning to the authorities.
hamster wheel. They were first used in prisons in The New Mexico judge who first allow
19th-century Britain. Several prisoners stood side use of a tag in 1983 was supposedly ins
by side on a wheel and had to step for hours a day, a Spiderman comic strip that featured e
climbing the equivalent of up to 17,000 feet. It was tagging. Modern tags can also track offe
an attempt to make incarceration productive, rather using GPS, stopping them from straying
than just punitive – some treadwheels were used toaparticularplace.
to grind grain, others pumped water or powered
ventilation systems. However, some were pointless,
Recipients of foot
designed only to keep prisoners busy. DUCKING STOOL 1597 whipping were typically
The ducking stool was a chair fastened to a long tied in position to prevent
Ducking stools were beam fixed as a seesaw on the edge of a pond unintended injury
also used in Medieval or river. An offender would be strapped in and
times to try to identify
witches dropped into the water. It was a variation on the
earlier cucking stool, a similar punishment that
did not involve dunking in water. The ducking
stool was usually reserved for women, often those
convicted of scolding their husbands. The last
recorded British ducking took
place in Leominster in 1809.

BASTINADO STICK 960
William Bastinado involves the whipping of the soles
Cubitt
1785-1861, BRITISH of the feet with a stick. First recorded in China
When English engineer Sir William in 960, it moved to Europe in 1537, but Biblical
Cubitt saw idle prisoners at Bury St references suggest it may be much older. The
Edmunds gaol, he came up with an idea foot has a large number of nerve endings but
to use them productively. The result
was the treadwheel, which he installed bones are generally protected by thick muscle –
at Brixton Prison to grind grain. The the high level of pain combined with minimal
prisoners’ efforts supplemented physical evidence meant that bastinado was
the power from a windmill that adopted by many disreputable regimes. The
Cubitt had built nearby.
© Alamy, Thinkstock
Nazis were particularly fond of it, while its use
continues in Syria and Zimbabwe.
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