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Roller history

1760 – A London instrument maker and inventor, Joseph Merlin, made a grand entrance into a masquerade party by wearing one of his new inventions, metal- wheeled boots. Then, he crashed into a wall-length mirror.

1819 – The first patent for a roller skate was issued. The skate was made of a wooden sole that attached to the bottom of a boot, fitted with two to four rollers made of copper, wood or ivory and arranged in a straight line. Later, someone tried to patent a skate called the “Rolito,” which had five wheels in a single row on the bottom of a shoe, but there was one snag: The Rolito was unable to follow a curved path.

1863 – American James Plimpton found a way to make a usable pair of skates. He had two parallel sets of wheels, one pair under the ball of the foot and one pair under the heel. The wheels were made of boxwood and worked on rubber springs. It’s considered the birth of the modern four-wheeled roller skate.

1908 – Hundreds of rinks began opening, and recreational skating became popular as well as polo skating, ballroom roller dancing and competitive speed skating.

1970s and ‘80s – Skating’s second big boom occurred with the marriage of disco and roller-skating, with more than 4,000 roller discos operating, and Hollywood began making roller movies.

1980s – Brothers Scott and Brennan Olson founded Rollerblade Inc., introducing a craze for in-line skating. This left the roller skate in the dust for two decades.

2000 – Roger Adams, inspired by his childhood love of roller-skating, invents Heelys, the athletic shoes with wheels in the heels that allow wearers to shift from walking to skating, without changing footwear.

Source: About.com: “The Wild History of Roller Skates or Dry Land Skating” and www.msnbc.com.