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Skates
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Various brands come out with advertisements
where people are shown enjoying the summer and
some of them were having fun roller skating. Doesn't it seem
so simple when other people are skating, but in fact it
involves a lot of practice and falling down too!
Humans have been skating in some way or the other for nearly
500 years. We all enjoy watching ice skating
since it is such a beautiful and graceful art.
Ice-skating is supposed to be even older than
roller-skating, since it began in early 16th century.
Initially the Norsemen used to tie runners
that were made of bone to their feet and this helped them
slide over snow. Then came iron runners and today,
skaters use steel skates. Technology
has improved the skates so much because earlier, the
runners used leather thongs to tie the runner to the person's
feet, then this was changed and the skates were strapped
tightly to the shoe. Today, we know that skaters have separate
shoes, where the blade is permanently attached to the boot.
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Wheeled skates were
used in Holland about 200 years back, but we have
no conclusive evidence about the inventor. The earliest information
we have is of a man named J.L. Plimpton, from New York,
who created the four wheeled skate in 1863. These
skates worked on rubber pads and they became popular very fast.
With time, changes and improvements were made to the skates and soon
they had ball bearings. The wheels were first made
of boxwood, but naturally, the wood was not smooth
enough and tended to easily break off. So instead of wood, the
wheels were then produced using a hard composition or steel.
Roller skating races became one of the favorite passtimes of
American youngsters until 1910, when motorcycles and
sports cars took over. But even, today, this skating activity is a
delight to people of all ages. |
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