THE LYBECK CYCLE SKATING RINK, Howard St., between Third and Fourth, Moving Pictures and Optical Illusions. ■ ORCHESTRA MUSIC. Open daily from 9:30 a. m. to 12 m.; ! to 4:19 p. m.; ? to 10 p. m. General Admission. 10c: , Gents’ Skates, 15c; Ladles’ Skates, Free.
Lybeck Cycle Skating Rink – THE ONLY RINK WHERE THE DANIELS FOOT CYCLE IS USED.
– ‘San Francisco Call’ Newspaper, Volume 83, Number 55, 24 January 1898
American inventor Taylor E. Daniels (1843-1919) patented a number of his inventions, including:
In 1875, ‘Improvements in Breast-Cups for Females’: ‘The object of my invention is to provide a simple and unobjectionable device for receiving and conveying to a receptacle in the pocket the fluid which is involuntarily discharged from the breasts of nursing women.’
In 1875, ‘Improvements in pocket-inhalers’
In 1876, ‘Improvements in Composition-Marble Burial-Cases’
In 1880, an ‘Improved Steam Feed Cooker and Drier’
An ‘Endless-chain mortising-machine’ (1882) and ‘Chain mortising machine’ (1885)
He applied for his first roller skate patent on 3rd December 1896, which was granted in December 1897. This was a conventional 2-wheel skate, but with various improvements.
But his ‘piece de resistance’ appears to be this Daniels Foot Cycle, a three-wheeled roller skate that can be adapted to a four-wheeled skate as required.
As you can see from the 1898 classified advert at the top of the page, the Lybeck Rink in San Francisco was specifically named a ‘Cycle Skating Rink’ advertising itself as the only rink where the Daniels Foot Cycle was used. Unfortunately, the Foot Cycle was not universally acclaimed, the Daniels Foot Cycle Co being wound up by April 1898. With only one year of production for these unusual – though extremely well-constructed – three-wheeled roller skates, there are very few survivors today – in fact, this is the only pair I have ever come across.
THE 1897 DANIELS FOOT CYCLE
1897 Daniels ‘Foot Cycle’ 3-Wheel Roller Skates
DANIELS FOOT CYCLE PATENT
DANIELS 1896 PATENT FOR A TWO-WHEELED ROLLER SKATE
