RACK (Goth. uf-rackjan, OHG., Ger. reckon, to stretch ; connected with Lat. regere, to stretch, rule. Gk. oreyein. Lith. rerit-yti, Skt. arj, to stretch). An obsolete instrument of torture. formerly used for extracting confessions from criminals and suspected persons. It consisted of a large oblong frame of wood, with four beams, slightly raised from the ground. on which the suf.
ferer was stretched and bound. Cords were at tached to his ankles and wrists, and gradually strained by means of a lever and pulleys, till— unless the prisoner confessed and was released— dislocation of the limbs ensued. The rack was in use among the Romans in the first and second centuries, and many of the early Christians un derwent its tortures. Coke mentions its intro duction into the Tower of London by the Duke of Exeter, Constable of the Tower, in 1447, when it came to be called the 'Duke of Exeter's daugh ter its use is mentioned by Hollinshed in 1647, and it became common in the time of Henry VIII. as an implement of torture for prisoners confined in the Tower. The infliction of the punishment of the rack took place during the reign of the Tudor sovereigns by warrant of council, or under the sign manual. In 1628 it was proposed in the Privy Council to put Felton, the murderer of the Duke of Buckingham, to the rack, in order that he might confess as to his accomplices, but the judges resisted the proceeding, as contrary to the law of England. In various European countries
the rack was frequently used both by the civil authorities in cases of traitors and conspirators, and by members of the Inquisition to extort a recantation of heresy.
developed, and it is now mostly played within a closed court surrounded by four walls and cov ered with a high roof. The game in America is substantially the same as in Europe, excepting that the courts are somewhat slower and some times a trifle smaller, and the balls slightly softer. The game is played by two, or by four, divided into pairs, on a covered court having an asphalted or stone-paved floor space of about 60 feet long by 30 wide (or 80 by 40, for double matches), surrounded by plain plastered walls about 40 feet high at one end and both sides. The other end wall is usually utilized as a gallery for onlookers. On the front wall, on one line, `the service line' is drawn across eight feet from the floor. Two feet two inches from the floor on the same wall a board is placed flat across it called 'the play-line or board.' The floor is divided by lines into five spaces, two of which are called 'service boxes.' At the start one player, called the 'hand in,' stands in the service box, and the other, the 'hand out,' in one of the spaces.