Most likely, since the very beginning of things, the human brain has been interested in making things easier on the human body.
Back in those early days, the caveman would pick up a heavy rock and carry the heavy rock. But then, he thought, what if I place the heavy rock on an animal skin, and drag it along the ground? And the first cart was invented.
And. So we continued. Doing the things that would make life easier somehow. Less work.
At some point, we humans became possessed with the thought of propelling ourselves. Some of those humans must have really hated walking places, or perhaps, even, running from things. So they became focused on making the human body could go faster but with less work.
So. We got on horses and donkeys. And camels. And when our mechanical abilities started to develop? We invented bikes and cars. And. Well. Roller skates. Yes. Shoes with wheels. If they have wheels on carriages, why not add them to our feet, they said.
It started early on. Roller-skating was invented in 1760 by John Joseph Merlin in London. He showed off his new wheeled shoes at a party one night and promptly crashed into a mirror. Hard. He sustained cuts and other injuries. Practice, practice.
That John Joseph Merlin was quite the inventor. He is famous for the creation of “ingenious automata.” The thing, in particular, was called the Silver Swan. Its automation was revolutionary for the time. Merlin also created a wide variety of mechanical clocks and musical instruments.
He cranked out one new thing after another: a self-propelled wheelchair, a prosthetic device for “a person born with stumps only,” a card game for the blind. There were many other inventions beyond his nifty roller skates.
But all this came about because on this date, January 4, 1863, a gentleman named James Plimpton patented the four-wheeled roller skates. The ones we knew as kids. He was from New York.
Prior to Plimpton, skates were inline, with only three wheels and no way to turn. Plimpton gave skaters four wheels. This let them pivot and steer by simply leaning to the left or the right. I haven’t skated since childhood. And, these days, I have something called a BMW.
Plimpton was committed to skating. He opened some of the earliest roller rinks. Topping things off, he also established the first roller skating club. Membership included the rules of roller skating rink conduct, how-to-roller-skate lessons, and proficiency tests for skaters to plot their progress. I wonder if they got t-shirts. Or a secret handshake, maybe.
He was motivated, it seems. Earlier in his life, Plimpton wasn’t very athletic nature. As such, he went to his doctor with his woes. Which I think is extremely funny, as I know loads of people without an athletic bone in their bodies, and they never consulted their doctors. Anyway, Plimpton’s doctor recommended that he begin to practice a sport. More pointedly, he suggested ice skating to help Plimpton get into shape. Plimpton was convinced that roller skating would have the same effect on his body as ice skating. And that is why he began to improve roller skate. To make his “workouts” easier, because he suffered from weak ankles. A sport built on weak ankles.
Roller skating was quite popular for a while, perhaps 50 to 100 years ago. But these days, it is hard to find a rink. There are only 52 rinks in all of the United States, by my count.
It seems video games have replaced a lot of physical activities. What once moved the body, soul, and mind is falling silent.
Maybe it is just easier to sit and hold a control device with our hands. Although it seems, we’ve continued on our ancestors’ paths of making work easier. Even play.
And, on we go. Around and around.
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“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols
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“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”
― Henry David Thoreau
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“A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
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Roll with it baby.
