October - National Roller Skating Month

Ah, roller skating. Couldn't work the key, and I have no sense of balance. Looked like fun though. According to the book Patents : ingenious inventions : how they work and how they came to be, the whole point of the side-by-side wheels was to allow the skater to turn by applying more pressure to one side of the skate. This was seen as a huge improvement over the earlier in-line(!) skates that required the skater to pick up their feet more often and turn in small increments. Since I was unable to go more than a few feet before crashing while on roller skates, I had no idea you could do this. Once again, ingenuity wasted on me.
Take a look at the book when you get a chance, great information and fun design - the cover of the book is swathed in bubble wrap. So you have something soft to land on when you fall off your skates.