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
Charles Thurber (inventor) Charles Thurber (inventor) Charles Thurber (January 2, 1803 – November 7, 1886) was an inventor and firearms maker who made important innovations in the early development of the typewriter. According to the book "The Marvels of Modern Mechanism" published in 1901, Thurber invented and patented in 1843 the first practical typewriter, though it admits his machine was slow, crude and was never manufactured. Thurber was a partner with his brother-in-law, Ethan Allen in a firearms manufacturing company known as Allen & Thurber. Aside from firearms, he developed multiple patents, the first in 1843 for an aid to the blind and