Roller skates got their start with quite a bang, making their first public appearance at a masquerade party in the 1760s. Inventor John Joseph Merlin wore his newfangled wheeled shoes to an event at Carlisle House in London, where he promptly smashed into mirror, hurting himself and the invention’s reputation for decades to come. In 1818, roller skates made a more triumphant debut as part of a ballet staged in Berlin. Titled “Der Maler...Continue Reading