5.5 The roller skate craze
As if bicycles weren’t enough of a menace, roller skates also became popular at the turn of the twentieth century. The first roller skates had been invented in the 1700s, but in 1863 James Plimpton invented the four-wheeled skate that allowed skaters to turn corners. By the 1880s roller skates were being mass-produced.
In 1907, William N. Selig filmed a variety of people going about their daily lives, all wearing roller skates.
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North Carolina Digital History: Credits and acknowledgments
