The First Real Roller Skate
There were many skates before James Plimpton's 1863 design , but his was the first that had a chance of working the way modern ones do. It was the basis of all following "quad" skate designs.The picture below, of the prototype itself, shows that it was pretty much a standard "backyard job" - truck of wood and sheet metal, "plate" of carved wood, wheels that could have been stolen from a child's toy truck. But it was the start of something big ...
