In 1480, Leonardo Da Vinci designed a lathe powered by foot treadle, which allowed for constant rotation.

FORBES: No. 12 The Lathe

Greenberg and her team of students travelled to Burma, and devised a cheap and efficient treadle pump that looks like a Stairmaster, which the farmer steps on in order to extract water.

NEWYORKER: Get Rich U.

At the Froxfield workshops in Hampshire, where Mr Peters was apprenticed at 16, eagerly sweeping every last wood-curl from the floor, there were treadle saws, and only natural daylight illuminated the aproned young men bent solemnly over their work benches.

ECONOMIST: Alan Peters