Roller skating is the process of traveling on smooth terrain with roller skates. It is a form of recreation as well as a sport, and can also be a form of transportation.

Skates generally come in two basic varieties: inline skates, and traditional quad skates, though some have experimented with a single-wheeled “quintessence skate” or other variations on the basic skate design.

The first recorded use of roller skates was in a London stage performance in 1743.

The first recorded skate inventor was Jean-Joseph Merlin, who demonstrated a primitive inline skate with metal wheels in 1760.

The design of the quad skate has remained essentially unchanged since then, and in fact remained as the dominant roller skate design until nearly the end of the 20th century.

Another improvement came in 1876, when the toe stop was first patented. This provided skaters with the ability to stop promptly upon tipping the skate onto the toe. Toe stops are still used today on most quad skates and on some types of inline skates.

The vast majority of skates on the market today are either quad or standard inline design.

The true inventor of the first roller skate is not known.