(Picture: Museum of fine arts, Houston TX)

Jean-Joseph Merlin wasn’t the first inventor who had the idea to put wheels on shoes. But his try was the first to be documented. And as the X-TRA-guests do, he tried them on at a party, at an event organised by the British royalty. Merlin didn’t overthink his invention very well… he didn’t practice in advance and when he stood on his roller skates on the dancefloor at the royal ballroom in front of a curious audience, he immediately noticed, that he has forgotten something important: “how do I break on these things?!”. And so he crashed into a mirror next to the parquet and instead of being celebrated, he had to be patched up by the doctors. Fortunately you can brake on modern roller skates. But we don’t’s have any mirrors next to the dancefloor anyway – better safe than sorry.

Rollschuh Disco vom 14. Februar.