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.
Vogue 1970Roller skating, 1930sRockabilly roller girl posingWendy Parker skating at Wellington Pier, ca. 1950Members of the Great Yarmouth roller skating club at Wellington Pier, ca. 1950Marilyn Monroe roller skating in 1952Roller skating girls, ca. 1950sMarie Prevost on roller skatesA gorgeous Vogue card featuring a photograph of a girl skating with her luggage. Photography by Jean-Francois Jonvelle, 1972.Roller skating in Manhattan, 1933Roller skating girl, 1966Gloria Nord, headliner of the Skating Vanities skating show of the 1940sA waitress on roller skates skillfully delivers a tray full of food to hungry customers in the 1940s.Pin-up roller girl, ca. 1950sNatalie Wood skating in the 1970sRoller skating, 1970sStylish girl on roller skates, ca. 1900sCo-eds at the University of Chicago go to school on skates, 1930Emma Willard School girls, NY, 1950sBetty Grable on roller skates, ca.1937The Lesson, Central Park, New York, 1936Roller skating girls having fun, ca. 1940sAdrienne DoreDebbie Reynolds on skates, ca. 1950sRoller skate friends, 1944Becky Howe roller skating with a sling at the Venice Pavillion in 1978Roller skating friends, England, 1926Roller girl, ca. 1930s-40sBetty Grable on skatesFashion photo by Herman Landshoff, Junior Bazaar, 1946
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