In 1852, Joseph Gidman filed a provisional patent application titled "A skate", where he described a skate with a front wheel, a rear wheel, and two side wheels mounted mid-section. Instead of constructing a wheel with a solid nave, Gidman inserted rollers between a wheel and its axle, effectively applying roller bearings to skate wheels. But Gidman was ahead of his time. He spent 30 years trying to get roller skates with roller bearings mass produced, with little success.
In 1852, Joseph Gidman filed a provisional patent application titled "A skate" where he described a skate with a front wheel, a rear wheel and two side wheels mounted mid-section. Instead of constructing a wheel with a solid nave, Gidman inserted rollers between a wheel and its axle, effectively applying roller bearings to skate wheels. But Gidman was ahead of his time. He spent 30 years trying to get roller skates with roller bearings mass produced, with little success.