 The Rolamite was invented by Sandia engineer Donald F. Wilkes and was patented on June 24, 1969.It was discovered while Wilkes was working on a miniature device to detect small changes in the inertia of a small mass.After testing an S-shaped metail foil, which he found to be unstable to support surfaces, the engineer inserted rollers into the S-shaped bends of the band, producing a mechanical assembly that has very low friction in one direction and high stiffness transversely.