Rollerblading is one of the famous extreme sports around the globe. We all know the unexpected accident to this kind of sport. Aside from your daredevil stunts you have to protect yourself with different gadgets all over your body. But before that, we have to look backward, who started all of this kind of sport.

Roller skates were invented by a famous man in Blur, Belgium named Joseph Merlin (a violinist: extreme but not related to his invention) in 1760 (whom he used the roller blades in the masquerade party he attended: he wanted a grand entrance in the party, while playing his violin he walked with his roller skates but sad to say, he looses control and fall against the expensive mirror wall) but the roller blades (use in extreme sports today) were Scott and Brennan Olsen. The invention of Merlin never been patented because of the accident. But the first one who really invented the roller skates but not patented was longer forgotten. The first to patent the roller skates was in 1819 by an inline design of Petibledin of France.

The first quad-skate to record in contrast to the first inline skate was in New York designed by James Leonard Plimpton in 1863. And because of this successful invention, the Americans prepared the first skating rink opened in 1866 in Newport, Rhode Island.

And in 1876, William Bown, patented the rollerblades in Birmingham, England. But in 1877, a toolmaker also in Birmingham Joseph Henry Hughes drew patent of rollerblades with its much better design. During the 1880s, Micajah Henley of Richmond, Indiana produced thousand of rollerblades. Henley skates had a special design to adjust the screw to reduce or increase the tension of the wheels. The one who received a patent in steel ball bearings skates was Levant Richardson in 1884. Four years after, Richardson started Richardson Ball Bearing and Skate Company, which provided different professional skaters their needed skates.

Less than a century later, 1979, ice-hockey-playing Olsen brothers redesigned their ice blade boots after visiting Chicago Roller Skate Company and put their own company as Rollerblade Inc. From 1980s, 1990s, the popularity of Rollerblading became the most popular sports ranking over even basketball, football, and baseball games. And because of the popularity, there are different rollerblade manufactures from one place to another competing different designs and materials for good speed and durability. And the rest of Rollerblading story is history.

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1. A Closer Look At Rollerblading History
2. Rollerblading For Sports Or Fun
3. Rollerblading History
4. Rollerblading In The US History
5. The history of rollerblading