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
John Joseph Merlin Fanny Burney wrote of Merlin with affection: While he was certainly respected for his talents, Merlin also seems to have cultivated his image as an eccentric. He took advantage of balls and masquerades to promote himself, appearing in public in odd costumes and showing off his inventions. "The Morning Post and Daily Advertiser" of March 4, 1778 declared "Mr. Merlin, the mechanic" to be the most striking Character of the 900 people attending a masquerade ball at the Pantheon. Merlin appeared "as a gouty gentleman, in a chair of his own construction, which, by a transverse direction of two winches,