While the first reported use of roller skates was on a London stage in 1743, the

first patented roller skate was introduced in 1760 by Belgian inventor John Joseph Merlin.[1] His

roller skate wasn't much more than an ice skate with wheels where the blade goes, a style we
would call inline today. They were hard to steer and hard to stop because they didn't have brakes
and, as such, were not very popular. The initial "test piloting" of the first prototype of the skate
was in the city of Huy, which had a party with Merlin playing the violin.
In the 1840s, Meyerbeer's opera Le prophète featured a scene in which performers used roller-
skates to simulate ice-skating on a frozen lake set on stage. The result was to popularize roller
skating throughout the Continent. As ice skaters subsequently developed the art of figure
skating, roller skaters wanted the ability to turn in their skates in a similar fashion. [2]
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, one that was easier to use and drove the huge popularity of roller skating, dubbed
"rinkomania" in the 1860s and 1870s,[3] which spread to Europe and around the world, and
continued through the 1930s. The Plimpton skate is still used today.
Eventually, roller skating evolved from just a pastime to a competitive sport; speed skating,
racing on skates, and inline figure skating, very similar to what can be seen in the Olympics on
ice. In the mid 1990s roller hockey, played with a ball rather than a puck, became so popular that
it even made an appearance in the Olympics in 1992. The National Sporting Goods Association
statistics showed, from a 1999 study, that 2.5 million people played roller hockey. Roller skating
was considered for the 2012 Summer Olympics [4] but has never become an Olympic event. Other
roller skating sports include jam skating and roller derby. Roller skating popularity exploded
during the disco era but tapered off in the 80s and 90s.
The Roller Skating Rink Operators Association was developed in the U.S. in 1937. It is currently
named the Roller Skating Association. The association promotes roller skating and offers classes
to the public, aiming to educate the population about roller skating. The current president is
Bobby Pender. The Roller Skating Association headquarters is located in Indianapolis.

An advertisement for an early 20th-century model which fit over regular shoes
 

Young woman roller skating beside a group of women's suffragists at the White House, 1917
 
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Girl on roller skates, 1921

 

Roller skates of a design common in the 1960s

 

Skates at Paul Bunyan Land, Brainerd, Minnesota

Health benefits[edit]
The Roller Skating Association's web page offers some health benefits of roller skating. Some of
the benefits they list include: [5]

 Providing a complete aerobic workout

 Burning 330 calories per hour while skating 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h) for a 143-pound
person or 600 calories while skating 10 miles per hour (16 km/h).
 A study from the University of Massachusetts found that in-line skating causes less than
50% of the impact shock to joints compared to running.
 Roller skating is equivalent to jogging in terms of health benefits
 The American Heart Association recommends roller skating as an aerobic fitness sport.
See also