Have you ever wondered how long people have been rollerskating for? Or what motivated designers to create this strange creation of shoe and wheels? I'll try to bring you a little story about roller skates, starting with the first part today.

The base of this post is the article from Mrs. Mary Bellis - the inventor and author of numerous findings about other inventors. I tried to explore topics foisted by her, and I managed to dig out a few interesting facts (some totally opposite to Bellis's findings), I hope you will like it. The first skates that we know something more about, were created by Belgian inventor, whose name sounds more like a hero from Arthurian legends rather than inventor - Merlin. In the second half of XVIII century during winter, skates were used in Belgium not only for recreational purposes, but mainly as a means of transport, used on the frozen canals and rivers. So, John Joseph Merlin, inspired by the ice-skates, came up with the idea of ​​attaching a small metal wheels arranged in a single line, attached to shoes so that they could be used during summer time . The exact date when "skeelers" (Belgian name for skates, it also appears in many historical sources) first appeared is difficult to define, but the first mention of their use appeared around 1760.
Next, Merlin went to London, where he used his skates to promote " The Museum of Merlin's Mechanisms" by skating around the Hanover Square. Unfortunately, one of his shows ended up tragically, unable to stop he crashed into a storefront and demolished it completely... Later on, he was trying to improve his work, but he didn't succeed - skates remained very heavy in weight and difficult to maneuver, worked mainly if you were going straight-ahead. Since that wasn't good enough, next, there was Maximilian Von Lede, Frenchman who around 1789 presented skates with metal soles and wooden wheels attached to shoes with straps. The next record of the skates, is from the year 1818 in Berlin, where skates were used in ballet in order to simulate smooth ice-skating movement. Similar effort was taken in Paris by M. Petitbled, but the results were poor. Maneuverability and traction were main problems, which were finally solved around 1940s. Inbetween, around 1863 there was a significant progress when James Plimpton (American), who invented the classic roller skates (known as "quadro skates").
But before that happened, in 1823, Robert Tyers patented the idea of ​​a use of "banana" - a combination of two larger (central) wheels with one pair of smaller ones (external), naming it Rolito. The idea was carried on by Frenchman Jean Garcin in the 20s of nineteenth century, when he opened the first skating track, but soon he was forced to shut idown his business because of many complains from the injured customers. In the 40s of the nineteenth century, German press mentioned the tavern located near Berlin, where waitresses served beer with skates on. In 1849, another amateur skater Louis Lagrange brought the invention to such state that he managed to successfully use roller skates during the premiere of the opera "Le Prophete " by Giacomo Meyerbeer. It was a great success, Paris Opera Orchestra played the music, outstanding soloists sang their songs, the tour visited major European cities, many people saw skates with their own eyes. Around 1850 was when the concept of the ball bearings appeared and when the wooden or metal wheels where replaced by rubber ones. However, in practice, it was about 20 years later when the bearings managed to be suitable for use, and after another 10 years of development, they began to resemble the ones similar to what we use today . They were designed by William Bown and Josephe Henry Hughs, but the idea of bearing with steel balls was patented by Levant Richardson in 1884, who later on opened up his own company and was producing some of the fastest and most convenient skates at that time.
So we had arrived to the end of the nineteenth century, please expect the further part of the history of roller skates coming up soon. Photos attached to this entry show the beginning of my adventure with photography, they were taken between 1997 - 1999. Some of them I snapped with my dad's Zenit, some with simple Fuji camera, I took them in Oświęcim and Bielsko - Biala, you can spot Paweł Naras, Michał Pędziwiatr, Krzysiek Miczek, Sebastian Wanat and others. Enjoy!