Ox Treadmill, Upper Italy, ca. 1600

Ox treadmills were used to drive corn mills. Two oxen can work on the slanting plate while roped and force to walk up the plate all the time. In so doing the plate turns away beneath then. 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.