For children: Amazing stories of how roller skates (and other interesting things) came to India

Have you heard about the stylish Belgium-born inventor who zoomed into a masquerade party on skates, playing a violin, in 1760? His invention had three wheels in a row, but no brake. He obviously didn't have a good sense of balance either, for he skated right into a mirror in front of a shocked audience. John Joseph Merlin's skates may have shattered, but his dreams did not, and neither was he cursed with seven years of misfortune for breaking a mirror. The horologist and musicologist went on to invent many things including a weighing machine, a “chair for the infirm'“, a fiddle, an automaton and a device that could help the visually impaired play cards!

In 1789, Maximiliaan Lodewijk van Lede made what he called a patin à terre, or “land skate”, by attaching wooden wheels to an iron sole plate. The first patent was awarded only in 1819 to Frenchman Charles-Louis Petibled. But his skates could only allow users to move in a straight line. That changed in 1863 when James Plimpton designed skates in which the two front wheels were fixed to two different pivoted plates, allowing users to skate on any path they desired. The term “skating” now...

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