Roller-Skating Rules

The roller-skating revolution swept the world in the 1800s. Invented  in the 1700s, roller skates became a huge fad after an 1863 innovation  made them easier to control. It sparked the first (of many) skating  crazes.

Roller-skating, recreational and competitive sport in which the participants use  special shoes fitted with small wheels to move about on rinks or paved  surfaces. Roller-skating sports include speed skating,  hockey, figure skating, and dancing competitions similar to the  ice-skating sports, as well as the vertical and street-style  competitions common to so-called extreme sports.

Development of the roller skate. 

The invention of roller skates has been traditionally credited to a Belgian, Joseph  Merlin, in the 1760s, although there are many reports of wheels  attached to ice skates and shoes in the early years of that century.  Early models were derived from the ice skate and typically had an  “in-line” arrangement of wheels (the wheels formed a single straight  line along the bottom of the skate). 

In 1819 M. Petibled of Paris  received the first patent for a roller skate. Like previous models,  Petibled’s skate had an in-line wheel arrangement, using three wooden or  metal wheels. The wheels were connected to a wooden block that in turn  could be strapped to a boot. These early roller skates enjoyed limited  popularity. The ride was rough, and stopping and turning were nearly  impossible.