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
William Church (inventor) of steam powered coaches were tried between 1820 and 1840, they were extremely unpopular. With various impediments from excessive tolls on the turnpikes to virtual sabotage, prospective passengers were unnerved by being so close to the boiler. In the end, the railway, with its smooth running track and increasing speed, put an end to them. In 1838 he built a steam locomotive which had various names but was most notorious as the "Surprise" which was tried unsuccessfully in the early days of the Lickey Incline in England. William Church (inventor) William Church (circa 1778–1863) was an American inventor who patented