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
David Brooks (inventor) David Brooks (inventor) David Brooks was an Philadelphia, Pennsylvania inventor, remembered for an innovative insulator for telegraph lines in 1864 and 1867. He patented it while working for the Central Pacific Railroad. His patents allowed the railroad to more easily communicate with construction crews building the First Transcontinental Railroad in America. The insulator had a thick metal casing around blown glass; the assembly was held together with molten sulfur. Out of the tube extends a "ramshorn" rod that held the telegraph wires. It was mounted into holes drilled into the bottom of wooden crossarms attached to poles. Prior to the