Roller skates Roller skates Roller skates are shoes, or bindings that fit onto shoes, that are worn to enable the wearer to roll along on wheels. The first roller skate was effectively an ice skate with wheels replacing the blade. Later the "quad" style of roller skate became more popular consisting of four wheels arranged in the same configuration as a typical car. 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. His roller skate wasn't much more than an ice
Christophe Antoine Merlin brigade consisting of the 14th and 25th Chasseurs à Cheval. Merlin's 6th Brigade was part of Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne's Cavalry Division at the 1806 Siege of Gaeta. He became an equerry to Joseph Bonaparte, the new sovereign of the Kingdom of Naples. On 1 June 1807 he took command of the division of Salerno and Avellino and transferred to lead the division of Abruzzo on 9 September. Merlin was part of the kingdom's government in Naples in May 1808 when Joseph assumed the crown of Spain. Merlin went with Joseph and became a general of division and captain general in Joseph's