Roller Skates

Roller-skating is an exciting but dangerous activity. Whose idea was it anyway to attach wheels to the bottom of shoes?

It was that in the year 1100 Ad, hunters fixed bones under their leather boots so that they could hunt during winter. This was considered as the earliest model of roller skates. In 1760, a London musical instrument maker, John Joseph Merlin invented a pair of roller skates with small wheels made of metal. He wore the pair of roller skates to a ball and played the violin while skating. He eventually fell from the skates, yet this was the first experience in roller skating.

In 1819, M. Petibled invented another model of roller skates, whose soles were made of wood, and at the bottom of the soles, he affixed wheels in a row. However, since the sizes of the wheels were different, the roller skates could only skate forward. It was not until 1863 that an American named James Leonard Plimpton finally invented a pair of roller skates which could roll forwards, backwards and turn sideways, just like the modern-day roller skates that we have at present

Food for Thought :

The invention and evolution of roller skates tell us that frim the work of people in the past, ideas can be improved on, making the prod uct more appealing and widely used.

Short Stories on Discoveries, Inventions, Innovation & Creativity

AAET and UTAR, 2015

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