1950's Union Hardware Metal Roller Skates

In 1863, roller skates received a crucial tweak when American inventor James Leonard Plimpton of Medfield, Massachusetts, changed the layout of the wheels. His quad or "rocker" skates increased stability for skaters by placing a set of wheels side by side at the front and side by side at the back.
This design was adopted and still in use in the 1950's when Union Hardware built these metal skates.
But his greatest invention was attaching the wheel assembly to a pivot that had a rubber cushion, allowing the skater to use their weight to curve the direction of the skate. In 1866, Plimpton added leather straps and metal side braces for greater stability. He wisely patented all his inventions and changes.
If you were a boy or girl in the 1950's and '60's, tennis shoes were not yet in style for everyday wear. Most everyone wore stiff, leather-soled shoes like "saddle oxfords" or just plain black leather shoes.
And this was a good thing for skating. A kid could just bring along his metal skates, pull a skate key (NOT INCLUDED) from his pocket when needed, clamp those skates right on his shoes, and he was good to go. Later on, when tennis shoes became popular, the soft rubber soles of those shoes would not allow for skates to clamp on them, and so metal skates soon went the way of bobby-soxers and poodle skirts.
Metal skates might look archaic today, but they were great fun "back then."
The biggest challenge was finding a place on which you could use them.
Many driveways, and even roads, were gravel back then. A perfect example of disappointment could be found in the face of a happy child, with his brand new metal skates, hopping out on the driveway expecting to roll along effortlessly, but instead hitting the gravel and going maybe an inch before the wheels dug in and came to a dead stop. Trying to roller skate on gravel usually looked more like tip toeing on a cloud rather than actually skating.
Metal skates on concrete driveways, not to mention wood floors, could be trouble too. The those metal skates rolled really well on such surfaces, but the metal wheels could also make some pretty permanent scratches.
So paved, low-traffic roads were often the place of choice for us metal skaters.
1940's: The toe stop — a rubber pad at the front of the skate — was widely produced.
1950's: Drive-in restaurants sometimes featured servers (carhops) that brought food to the cars on roller skates.
1960's: Plastics innovations led to the roller skates' next big thing: plastic wheels that were lighter, faster and more durable.
In the late 1970's, roller skating circled back to its inline roots when two brothers, Scott and Brennan Olson, updated the inline skate with modern materials. The brothers took a hockey skate boot and attached inline wheels and a rubber toe stopper, creating what became known as the Rollerblade, a trademarked brand. Investors bought Rollerblade a few years later, putting in the time (and the research and development dollars) necessary to turn the Rollerblade into the singular product it became.
The Union Hardware Company was established in 1854 for the production of ice skates. The firm was initially organized by Torrington industrialist Achille F. Migeon with $12,000 in capital, and occupied an old lock shop along the Naugatuck River in Torrington Hollow. Around 1865 it relocated to a site on Migeon Avenue, where it would remain for the rest of its history. Roller skates were added to the firm’s catalog around 1876, these supplemented with a assortment of iron, leather and wooden goods by the turn of the century. Among the latter were various models of steel and bamboo fishing rods, fishing reels, gun accessories, hack saw frames, screwdrivers, chisels, tool handles, and other wooden goods. The company continued to diversify during the early decades of the twentieth century, adding nail clippers, steel golf club shafts, and police goods, such as handcuffs, by the 1930s. The initial plant erected along Migeon Avenue by the Union Hardware Company was comprised of a mix of brick and frame structures between one and three stories in height. These were incrementally removed and replaced during the late-19th and early-20th century, with the oldest existing building being the western half of the 1896 skate department and machine shop, a one-story red brick factory building with clerestory monitor roof located along the northern boundary of the plant. This was enlarged ca. 1905, a period that saw numerous additions to the plant. The latter included construction of a new office building, machine ship, forge shop, boiler house, and various shipping and storage buildings. The Union Hardware Company continued to expand its influence during the 1910's and 1920's, acquiring the Tower and Lyon Company of New York in 1911, the T.H. Wood Company of South Coventry, Connecticut in 1922, and the Chapin-Stephens Company of Pine Meadow, Connecticut in 1926. The firm also added a line of steel golf club shafts to its catalog during this period, a move that helped drive total employment to around 900 employees in 1930. The latter would become a vital market for the company and sustained its operations into the late 20th century. In 1960 the Union Hardware Company was purchased by the Brunswick Sports Products Co. – later the Brunswick Corporation – a Chicago-based sporting goods conglomerate. Union Hardware was maintained as a division of Brunswick and the company’s hardware lines were abandoned in order to focus on sporting goods, primarily roller skates and golf club shafts. Roller skates were phased out by the mid-1990's and in 1996, the FM Precision Golf Manufacturing Corporation acquired the Union Hardware Division of Brunswick, which was in turn merged with Royal Grip to form Royal Precision, Inc. the following year. True Temper Sports Inc., of Memphis, Tennessee, purchased and closed the Torrington factory in 2006. As of 2015 a portion of the plant had been reoccupied as a manufacturing facility for Duc Duc, LLC., a New York-based furniture maker.
Weigh 2 lbs Each
Measures 8.5" Long 2.5" Wide 4.25" Tall
Fair Condition Given Age-See photos
Need Restoration Before Using or Use As Displays

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