Plimpton’s “improved parlor skate” at the National Museum of Roller Skating.
The tag on it says:
The improved James L. Plimpton parlor skate introduced in 1866 combines rollers and an ice blade. The silver brass swans attached at the front show what the skate would need to become an ice skate and the wheels in the rear demonstrate the roller skate idea. Plimpton suggested four edges as opposed to the traditional one blade (swan) so that the skate would be turned or reversed as the edges become dull.
Gift of Budd Van Roekel
Van Roekel Patent Model Collection 84.40.3
National Museum of Roller Skating
The patent (US55901), which I found via Google Patents, supports this claim, saying:
The runners…have smooth running surfaces, with angular edges, so that they may be reversed when the inner edges lose their angularity by wear, and a fresh, sharp edge obtained; and when both edges of one surface become worn the runner may be inverted and two more angular or sharp edges obtained. Thus, each runner has four angular edges, which may be successively used before the runner will require to be sharpened.
US patent 55901
Plimpton made the runner-holders swan-shaped. In the patent, he notes that they “may be of any ornamental design.” His choice of a swan echoes the swan ice skates that were popular around the same time. E.J. Brakmaan wrote a little pamphlet about them [in Dutch].
In the patent, Plimpton claims that these skates give the skater
perfect command over the skates, and is enabled to perform curves, gyrations, and evolutions with the greatest facility.
US patent 55901
The skates may have worked well wheels attached—Plimpton’s basic design is still used with quad roller skates today— but I have serious doubts about how well the double-runner/truck system worked on ice.
On January 1, 1876, the Sporting Gazette ran a notice about a new type of skate invented by one Mr. Kemp. These skates, which he called “bicycle skates,” featured a large front wheel and a small rear wheel. They seem to have been intended for skating on roads normally traversed by bicycles.
“The Bicycle Skate,” Sporting Gazette, January 1, 1876, 6. Image copyright the British Library Board, courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive.
The promised time trials don’t seem to have been successful—at least, the results were not widely advertised. I managed to find one oblique mention in the Sporting Gazette:
…the skating race on the rink did not bring out the talent, or, perhaps I should say, the pace that was expected; for Rücker, the winner, though he did his best and was far the best of the lot, was the wrong side of a minute for a quarter of a mile. The style of all was wretchedly ugly, and I think it is safe to predicate that, until some modification of the bicycle skate is invented, no good time will be made or graceful fast skating shown on the rink.
“Athletic Notes,” Sporting Gazette, July 22, 1876, 723.
These skates never took off as touring skates; instead, Mr. Kemp and a couple of friends—Miss Lilly and Mr. Fletcher—spent the next couple of years traveling around Europe performing on them as the “Chinese bicycle skaters,” sometimes prefixed with “flying.”
Liverpool Daily Post, May 27, 1876, 1. Image copyright the British Library Board, courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive.
The name of the group caused some confusion, as there seems to have been no actual link to China, except perhaps in the skaters’ costumes.
We do not know whether the “Chinese” applies to the bicycle skates, which are the great feature of the performance, or to the mode in which the skaters use them, but the term does not seem intended to apply to the nationality of the artistes themselves.
“The Skating Rink at Valley-Parade,” Leeds Times, September 23, 1876, 3.
Despite their confusing name, the skaters were admired by many—and compared directly to roller skaters.
They appear to have complete control over the machines, some of the figures they describe even surpassing in elegance the most adroit manœuvres on ordinary rollers.
“Bicycle Skating at the Reservoir Rink,” Birmingham Daily Gazette, June 6, 1877, 5.
However, not everyone was in awe of their performance, and the bicycle skates were found lacking when direct comparisons to roller skates were made.
The evolutions performed resemble very much those capable of being accomplished by the skater on the ordinary roller skates, except that they are by no means so varied, so graceful, or so telling; but, at the same time, apparently much more difficult to accomplish.
“A Novelty at the Alexandra Skating Rink,” Nottinghamshire Guardian, May 26, 1876, 5.
It’s understandable why such skates wouldn’t be very popular. Why not just buy regular roller skates? Plimpton skates had been invented not long before and worked great. As a marketing ploy, these exhibitions weren’t the best idea because instead of highlighting the bicycle skate’s original niche, road skating, which roller skates weren’t very good for, they brought bicycle skates into direct competition with roller skates at indoor rinks, where they were sure to lose. The decision to make fun of beginning skaters as part of the performance probably contributed to the marketing disaster.
Much amusement is also afforded in one part of the performance by the illustration of a novice’s attempts to learn rinking, which it is needless to say as much cleverness is displayed.
“The Chinese Bicycle Skaters at the Pavilion Skating Rink,” Cheshire Observer, October 7, 1876, 6.
After the tour, Kemp returned to England and focused on developing a new method for fishing. He lost a lot of money on it and other projects, and on September 26, 1904, the London Daily News published an article with the headline “Inventor in Poverty: Applies for Poor-Law Relief.”
References
“The Bicycle Skate,” Sporting Gazette, January 1, 1876, 6.
“A Novelty at the Alexandra Skating Rink,” Nottinghamshire Guardian, May 26, 1876, 5.
“Athletic Notes,” Sporting Gazette, July 22, 1876, 723.
Leeds Times, September 23, 1876, 3.
“The Chinese Bicycle Skaters at the Pavilion Skating Rink,” Cheshire Observer, October 7, 1876, 6.
“Bicycle Skating at the Reservoir Rink,” Birmingham Daily Gazette, June 6, 1877, 5.
“Inventor in Poverty: Applies for Poor-Law Relief.” London Daily News, September 26, 1904, 3.
This image from the Illustrated London News in 1907 speaks for itself.
The Illustrated London News, January 19, 1907, p. 105. Image courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive.
The caption reads:
Football on roller-skates was inaugurated recently for men at Brighton skating-rink, and the pastime was very soon taken up by women. The game is played six a side: there are three forwards, two backs, and a goalkeeper. The goals are six feet high and seven wide, and the regulation football is used, with a little over a pint of water in it to keep the ball from rising. Twelve feet in front of each goal is drawn the penalty line. Down each side run the boundaries. When the ball gets into touch it is not thrown in, but is placed on the boundary line, and pushed into play with the side of the foot. Hustling is allowed, but not charging. Outside his own penalty area the goalkeeper must not handle the ball. Two minutes is allowed to repair skates.
Figures were once the backbone of figure skating on ice (hence the name in English), but experienced a steep decline in popularity after they were dropped as a competitive requirement in 1991. Today, ice skaters rarely do them. In roller skating, in contrast, figures continue to thrive—on quad skates. They don’t really work on inlines.
Roller figures in 2011.
In roller skating, figures and freestyle were combined (as they were in ice skating) in the 1940s, but in 1949, American competitions separated them. For a decade or so after that, American skaters were known for having great jumps but poor skating skills (Pickard 2010, 116). This is exactly what happened on ice in the 1990s.
This separation had another effect in roller skating that seems to have been missing from ice skating:
The RSROA’s separation of figures and free sakting events in 1949 encouraged dance skaters to spill into figure skating as a second event by the elimination of the acrobatics formerly required in combined event [sic] with free style.
Pickard 2010, 133
Some roller skaters continued to do both figures and freestyle, and the influx of dancers helped keep figures going. The singles event remained combined (requiring both figures and freestyle) in the world championship until 1980, when they were separated there, too (Pickard 2010, 116). Yet roller skaters continued to skate figures. Even now, 40 years later, roller skaters still do figures, and figures events are common and competitive. In contrast, on the ice, on the rare occasion that a figures event is offered, the number of competitors is very low.
Why have figures done so well in roller skating and so poorly on the ice?
References
David H. Lewis. 1997. Roller Skating for Gold. London: Scarecrow Press.
George Pickard. 2010. Titans and Heroes of American Roller Skating. Lincoln, NE: National Museum of Roller Skating.
