From Carlesa Williams,
Your Guide to Inline Skating.
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The first documented inline skate appeared in London in 1760. The progression from recreational skating, to fitness skating and eventually to inline competitive sports has been closely linked to the development of inline skate technology.

Let's follow the developments and technological improvements that have been made to the original inline skates that lead to the comfortable and sometimes highly specialized equipment used by inline skaters today.

1743 - First documented reference to inline or roller skating was left by a London stage performer. The inventor of these skates, which were probably an inline design, is unknown and is lost in history.

1760 - The first known inventor of an inline roller skate was John Joseph Merlin. Merlin was born September 17, 1735, in Huys, Belgium and became a musical instrument maker and mechanical inventor. One of his inventions was a pair of skates with single line of small metal wheels. He wore the skates as a publicity stunt to promote his museum, and from the beginning, stopping was a problem. It is believed that one of his ballroom stunts ended in a dramatic crash into a mirrored wall because of this defect. For the next century roller skate wheels followed the inline design alignment.

The National Museum of Roller Skating
is your About.com guide's resource for many
of the historical facts in this article.

You can contact the museum by writing to:

The National Museum of Roller Skating
PO Box 6579
Lincoln, NE 68506

Or email:
Roller Skating Museum Curator