Roller skating

Roller skating is travelling on smooth terrain with roller skates. It is often done for recreation and as a sport, but, more often than ice skating, it can be done functionally for moving around (it is faster than walking). The skates come in three basic varieties: inline skates, quad skates, and the quintessence skate.

History

Inline skate design was invented by Jean-Joseph Merlin as early as the 18th century, and one version was patented in France in 1819. However, their use was relatively unknown until the early 1980s, largely due to the fact that these early inline skates were not very maneuverable as it was very difficult with these skates to do anything but move in a straight line and perhaps make wide sweeping turns.

Related Topics:
Jean-Joseph Merlin - 18th century - 1819 - 1980s

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The quad skate was first designed in 1863 in Medford, Massachusetts by James Leonard Plimpton in an attempt to improve upon the previous design. It was a huge success, living up to expectations, so much so that the first public skating rink was opened in 1866 with the support of Plimpton.

Related Topics:
1863 - Medford, Massachusetts - James Leonard Plimpton - 1866

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Arguably the most important advances in the realistic use of roller skates as a pleasurable hobby or pastime took place in Birmingham, England in 1876 when William Bown patented a design for the wheels of roller skates which embodied his effort to keep the two bearing surfaces of an axle, fixed and moving, apart. Bown worked closely with Joseph Henry Hughes who drew up the patent for a ball or roller bearing race for bicycle and carriage wheels which included all the elements of an adjustable system in 1877. These two men are thus responsible for modern day roller skate and skateboard wheels, as well as the ball bearing race inclusion in velocipedes later to become motorbikes and automobiles.

Related Topics:
Birmingham, England - 1876 - William Bown - Axle - Joseph Henry Hughes - Roller bearing - Bicycle - Carriage - Wheels - 1877 - Skateboard - Velocipede - Motorbike - Automobile

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Also in 1876, the toe stop was invented which provided skaters with the ability to stop promptly upon tipping the skate forward; this is still used today on most quad skates and on some types of inline skates.

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In 1884 Robert Henley of Indiana introduced the use of ball bearings in skate wheels so as to reduce friction. This also allowed skaters to increase speed with minimum effort.

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By the 1880s roller skating had become a popular pastime. The design of the quad skate has remained essentially unchanged since then, and in fact remained as the dominant roller skate design for one hundred forty years.

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Roller skates were being mass produced in America as early as 1881. Micajah C. Henley of Richmond, Indiana produced thousands of skates every week during peak sales.

Related Topics:
Richmond - Indiana

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It was not until 1979 that Scott Olson and Brennan Olson of Minneapolis, Minnesota came across a pair of old inline skates and, seeing the potential for off-ice hockey training, set about redesigning the skates using modern materials and attaching ice hockey boots. A few years later Scott Olson began heavily promoting the skates and launched the company Rollerblade, which the name which many people often use when referring to inline skating, no matter what brand of skate they use.

Related Topics:
1979 - Scott Olson - Brennan Olson - Minneapolis, Minnesota - Hockey - Rollerblade

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For much of the 1980s and into the 1990s, inline skate models typically sold for general public use employed a hard plastic boot, similar to ski boots. In or about 1995, "soft boot" designs were introduced to the market, primarily by the sporting goods firm K2 Inc., and promoted for use as fitness skates. Other companies quickly followed, and by the early 2000s the use of hard shell skates became primarily limited to the aggressive skating discipline.

Related Topics:
Ski boots - 1995 - Sporting goods - K2 Inc. - Aggressive skating

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The quintessence skate was made in 1988 by Miyshael F. Gailson of Caples Lake Resort California, for the purpose of X-C ski skating and telemark skiing training.

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