The Columbus journal., 1886-03-17
ROLLER SKATING.

The Rise and Fsl Of b PAstime~3A0
Fortunes Made DuFing the Craze.
The great, empty, barn-ike struct-
ures-the skating rinks-wkich last
season were alive with thousands Of
busy skaters, are very quiet now.
| Here and there in the city q be
found one that is making an effort 20
keep open, but the attendance is very
poor and the attractions that last year
would have brought out thousands are
bringing but few TO the Kinks this sea-
son. The .craze" is over. It was .
very profitable one for the manufactur.
ers of roller skates and the owners OF
Kinks last year. There YER Kinks in
this city that made thousands of dol
lars. Last yesr Frank Hall, the pro-
prietor of the Olympian Rink, in Phila-
delphia, and who owned q factory for
making roller skates, sold one hundred
thousand pairs of skates. This year he
has sold none and has closed his fac
tory. Mr.. Hall says that, though the
''craze" is over. it is . mistake to think
that roller skating as an amusement is
to die out. When the '~'craze' has en-
tirely subsidized roller skating will be
reduced to the limits of q pastime upon
which legitimate business ventures
may be made.
Nothing connected with the "craze""
is more curious than the manner in
which it affected the trade in lockwood.
maple and hemlock. The lockwood
was found to be the best material from
which to manufacture the rollers. In
consequence, last year that wood
Jumped up from S26 a ton to $40, and
one firm, by q fortunate purchase just
before the market took an upward turn.
made GIT, 900 in less than two weeks.
The market was stripped almost bare
of lockwood for . time, and thousands
and thousands of tons were made
up into rollers in = few months.
lockwood is selling now at Sl8 q
ton, and the price is still going down.
So enormous did the proportions
of the infatuation for roller-skating
become that companies with hun
dreds of thousands of dollars as capital
were formed for the purpose of con-
structing Kinks in small cities all over
the country. These Kinks were built
for the most part of hemdock, and so
extensive were the operations that this
lumber, notwithstanding the immense
supply, made advances until the market
at one time showed that its value had
been increased at least Is per cent. by
the large operations of the construction
companies. Since 1884 the price of
hemlock has fallen off 50 per cent. be-
cause the building of the Kinks had to
be stopped. One of these construction
companies in ten months divided profits
of $4OO.O coo. The plan of the managers
wa to build q rink ip q promising
locality, run Il q few weeks. and then
sell it out to local spectators. Maple
was found to be the best wood with
which to construct the rink floors, and
this lumber jumped up to $50 and S55
q thousand feet.
It is an interesting fact that the
''roner-skating craze" would have come
long ago bdt for the patent For seven.
teen years after the skate was patented
not q skate was sold. and yet the
patentee in that time made $3,00O,000
Eben Plimpton was the lucky fellow
who first conceived the idea of the
roller, and he made all the roller skates
used during tho years his patent ran.
and rented them out to skaHng-rink
managers. He always made the con-
tracts read that he should receive ten
PEI cent. of the admission receipts and
an the money for tho rental Of the
skates. OF course, roller skating did
not flourish under these circumstances,
but the amusement was popular enough
to keep small Kinks In large cities, and
Mr.. Plmpton made money. As soon
as the patent expired and skates could
be made by any one the ''oraze"
started, and started in Richmond, Ind.
A citizen of that place started the
manufacture of roller skates in a little
wood-shed. The skates becamsPopular:
and he enlarged his shops until he had
q factory of over four hundred feet in
length and one in which many work
men are employed. He has made q
round million of dollars in the business.
Pittsburgh Chronicle.