Roller skating

HISTORY

Roller-skates made their first recorded appearance at a party in Carlisle House, London in 1760. A young Belgian musician who rolled into a London party while playing the violin wore these first roller skates. It was not a successful introduction as the violinist crashed into a mirror causing nearly a thousand dollars' worth of damage.

Man on the Edvard Petrini's pedaled roller skates, known as Takypod in Sweden, circa 1910

Robert John Tyers of London applied for the first patent for roller skates on April 22, 1823. The fruit seller's "Volito" ("I voltigiere" in Latin) inline skates were made of wood and metal and had five wheels in a single row with the middle wheel being the largest, and the other four being of unequal size. The skater could only be on two wheels at a time and could turn by bending forward or backward. The skates also had hooks in the front and back for brakes. 

While an exhibition of Tyers' skates was given in Haymarket, London, the invention did not become popular, although roller skates were used in a ballet performance in Bordeaux.

The first public skating rinks were opened in 1857 at The Strand, London and Floral Hall.West Morwood.

In 1863 New Yorker James Plimpton came up with the four-wheeled turning roller skate, or quad skate. It was a huge success, so much that within three years the first American public skating rinks were opened in 1866 in Plimpton's Big Apple furniture store and in Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1866 former civil war arms producer Everett Barney patented the all-metal screw clamp skate. They clamped on to the edges of the soles of shoes and were tightened with a key. However, with the advent of athletic shoes, there was no place to secure the skates so they eventually disappeared.

As the UK Home Secretary, Winston Churchill refused to agree to a by-law that banned skating on pavements, ‘as it affords outdoor exercise for young people, which is badly wanted in London’.

Roller skates in the United States around 1905

The quad skate remained the dominant roller skate design until Minnesotans Scott Olson and Brennan Olson came up with idea of roller blades in 1979. They were inspired after coming across a pair of inline skates created in the 1960s by the Chicago Roller Skate Company and, seeing the potential for off-ice hockey training, set about redesigning the skates using modern materials and attaching ice hockey boots. Within a few years the Rollerblade-branded skates were more popular than the traditional quads.

ROLLER DERBY

Roller derby is a contact sport played by two teams of five members. It has its origins in the banked-track roller skating marathons of the 1930s, and by 1940 had become a popular American sport with more than five million spectators watching in about 50 American cities.

Windy City Rollers (Chicago, Illinois). By Joe M500 from 24hr Siren City 

On November 29, 1948, Roller Derby debuted on New York television—broadcasting well before television viewership was widespread.

In 2001, a group of women in Austin, Texas started a roller derby league. Five years later, an A&E Network reality show Rollergirls started broadcasting examining the personalities, antics and motivations of the women involved with the Austin Lonestar Rollergirls roller derby league. Soon, women in every big city in the USA and Canada were starting their own roller derby clubs. There were even clubs starting up in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Here's some more songs about roller skating.