History on Wheels

Joseph Merlin inspected the little metal wheels on his shoes, tuned his violin and shoved off on his rolling, novelty entrance to Mrs. Corneily's masquerade in Soho Square, London. He raised his bow and rolled forward. He found that he could not steer. Neither could he stop. He screamed. Two seconds later, Mrs. Corneily's -L-500 mirror was in splinters, the fiddle was matchwood, and Merlin was bleeding like a pig. Thus, in 1760, the sport of roller skating was born.

Last week the first history of the sport was published: Roller Skating Through the Years by Brooklyn rink-owner Morris Traub (William-Frederick Press, $1). It captured the nostalgic whirl and clatter of skates from the days of Joseph Merlin to those of Western Union.*

For nearly a century after Merlin's smashing entrance, the sport remained a parlor trick. In 1849 grand opera really put it on its wheels. For an ice-skating scene in Meyerbeer's Le Prophete, the ballet wore rollers. Rehearsals were bruising--one ballet skater landed in the bass drum--but in London and Paris the scene was a hit. Skating became an international rage.

The U.S. made special contributions. The first skate that could be steered was invented by Yankee machinist James Leonard Plimpton in 1863. It consisted of two pairs of wheels which turned inward or outward as the skater shifted his weight. Modern skates still use this principle. Jackson Haines, father of figure skating on ice, mastered the pre-Plimpton rollers and toured Europe in 1865.

Plimpton's Passion. Plimpton built a $100,000 rink in New York City and introduced his sport to Newport, where polo on roller skates became a fashion. England also rolled passionately on Plimpton's invention. By 1876, Brighton had six rinks. Members of Parliament skated daily at Prince's Club.

Ballbearings gave the sport another push, but in the '90s enthusiasm shifted to bicycling. By 1910, however, the increase of figure skating made rollers more popular than ever. Chicago's Coliseum drew 7,000 persons on its opening night. In Washington, the predecessors of bureaucrats skated to work.

The sport tumbled in World War I. Not until the 1930s did it start rolling again, when Sonja Henie's movies made the world figure-skating conscious. Roller enthusiasts perfected the same 41 basic school figures which constitute ice skating's International Style. By 1942, the U.S. had 4,000 rinks, 10 million skaters.

Author Traub predicts a postwar boom because roller skating is a good boy-meets-girl sport.

* Whose office girls in 50 principal cities sort telegrams on skates.

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