National Museum of Roller Skating

In January of 1863, James Leonard Plimpton patented his four wheeled turning roller skate. The mechanism had a pivoting action dampened by a rubber cushion which permitted the roller skate to curve, simply by leaning weight in the desired direction of travel. At last a roller skater could move around the floor as if one were on ice. One foot and two foot turns could be done easily and momentum could be built up by an out and in scissors movement, a difficult feat to do on former roller skate models.