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
Leonard Bailey (inventor) Leonard Bailey (inventor) Leonard Bailey (1825-05-08 in Hollis, New Hampshire – 1905-02-05 in New York City) was a toolmaker/cabinet maker from Massachusetts, United States, who in the mid-to-late nineteenth century patented several features of woodworking equipment. Most prominent of those patents were the planes manufactured by the Stanley Rule & Level Co. (now Stanley Black & Decker) of New Britain, Connecticut. Commonly known as Stanley/Bailey planes, these planes were prized by woodworkers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and remain popular by today's wood craftsman. A type study of his patented planes and the rest of the Stanley