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
Joseph Beverley Fenby known for other inventions, notably the "Fenby folding chair", patented in the United States in 1881 () and an associated camp stool (). The chair became known as the Tripolina and inspired many similar designs. He died in 1903, in King's Norton, England, aged 60. Joseph Beverley Fenby Joseph Beverley Fenby (1841–1903) was an English mechanical engineer and inventor who designed a device that would record a sequence of keyboard strokes onto paper tape. Although no model or workable device was ever made, it is often seen as a link to the concept of punched paper for player piano rolls