John Joseph Merlin he wheeled about himself, with great facility to any part of the room." At an event held by Teresa Cornelys in Carlisle House, Soho Square, Merlin appeared somewhat disastrously on roller skates of his own invention. By April 1783 Merlin was putting his musical instruments and his automatons on display at his own museum. Advertisements invited readers to visit his Museum of Musical Instruments and Mechanical Inventions at No. 2, Princes Street, Hanover Square, London. Well-off Londoners could meet their friends at Merlin's Mechanical Museum in the afternoon or evening, pay to see the exhibits, and drink tea or coffee
Joseph Gibbs (engineer) Joseph Gibbs (engineer) Joseph Gibbs (1798–1864) was a British civil engineer and mechanical inventor. He patented a series of inventions for sawing and cutting wood, metal and stone. He is also known for his design work on the Great Northern Railway and the London & Brighton Railway. Gibbs was born in Staffordshire, the youngest son of a mill-owner and manufacturer. His uncle was mineral agent to the Duke of Devonshire and it was among the mines of the Derbyshire hills that it is thought that Gibbs acquired his taste for mining and geological research. He visited Holland and was engaged