The first patented roller skate was introduced in 1760 by Belgian inventor John Joseph Merlin. His roller skate wasn't much more than an ice skate with wheels where the blade goes. They were hard to steer and hard to stop because they didn't have brakes and as such were not very popular.
In 1863, James Plimpton from Massachusetts invented the "rocking" skate and used a four-wheel configuration for stability, and independent axles that turned by pressing to one side of the skate or the other when the skater wants to create an edge. This was a vast improvement on the Merlin design that was easier to use and drove the huge popularity roller skating, dubbed "rinkomania" in the 1860s and 1870s, which spread to Europe and around the world, and continued through the 1930s. The Plimpton skate is still used today.
In 1863, James Plimpton from Massachusetts invented the "rocking" skate and used a four-wheel configuration for stability, and independent axles that turned by pressing to one side of the skate or the other when the skater wants to create an edge. This was a vast improvement on the Merlin design that was easier to use and drove the huge popularity roller skating, dubbed "rinkomania" in the 1860s and 1870s, which spread to Europe and around the world, and continued through the 1930s. The Plimpton skate is still used today.
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| Vogue 1970 |
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| Roller skating, ca. 1930s |
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| Rockabilly roller girl posing |
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| Wendy Parker skating at Wellington Pier, ca. 1950 |
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| Members of the Great Yarmouth roller skating club at Wellington Pier, ca. 1950 |
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| Marilyn Monroe roller skating in 1952 |
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| Roller skating girls, ca. 1950s |
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| Marie Prevost on roller skates |
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| A gorgeous Vogue card featuring a photograph of a girl skating with her luggage. Photography by Jean-Francois Jonvelle, 1972. |
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| Roller skating in Manhattan, 1933 |
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| Roller skating girl, 1966 |
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| Gloria Nord, headliner of the Skating Vanities skating show of the 1940s |
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| A waitress on roller skates skillfully delivers a tray full of food to hungry customers in the 1940s. |
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| Pin-up roller girl, ca. 1950s |
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| Natalie Wood skating in the 1970s |
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| Roller skating, 1970s |
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| Stylish girl on roller skates, ca. 1900s |
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| Co-eds at the University of Chicago go to school on skates, 1930 |
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| Emma Willard School girls, NY, 1950s |
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| Betty Grable on roller skates, ca.1937 |
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| The Lesson, Central Park, New York, 1936 |
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| Roller skating girls having fun, ca. 1940s |
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| Adrienne Dore |
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| Debbie Reynolds on skates, ca. 1950s |
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| Roller skate friends, 1944 |
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| Becky Howe roller skating with a sling at the Venice Pavillion in 1978 |
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| Roller skating friends, England, 1926 |
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| Roller girl, ca. 1930s-40s |
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| Betty Grable on skates |
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| Fashion photo by Herman Landshoff, Junior Bazaar, 1946 |
