The Rotary Jail

William H. Brown invented what he thought was a good idea: a rotary jail. Cell blocks were constructed as a circular tumbler, and cells were built in the shape of a pie slice. There was only one door for the cell block, and the guard would rotate the cell block to access each cell. The idea was to save money by having fewer guards to watch fewer doors. You think it would take a long time to recoup the expense of the mechanism that way. What could possibly go wrong? You have to wonder whether anyone stopped to think that it might be easier just to walk around the building than to move the building. Eighteen rotary jails were built, and that's when the problems started. Like inmates getting their arms cut off. Tom Scott visits the Rotary Jail Museum in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where a working rotary jail survives. (via Digg)