The
‘very ingenious mechanick’ John Joseph Merlin adored all unconventional forms
of transport, no matter how hazardous; his most celebrated mishap is related in
Thomas Busby’s Concert Room and Orchestra
Anecdotes of 1825;
One of his
ingenious novelties was a pair of skates … Supplied with a pair of these and a
violin he mixed in the motley group of one of the celebrated Mrs. Corneily's
masquerades at Carlisle House, Soho Square; when, not having provided the means
of retarding his velocity, or commanding its direction, he impelled himself
against a mirror of more than five hundred pounds value, dashed it to atoms,
broke his instrument to pieces and wounded himself most severely.
Not
much is known of Merlin’s early life; he was born or baptised on 17 September
1735 at Huy in the Walloon province of Liege in Belgium, the third child of
Maximilien Joseph Merlin and Marie-Anne Levasseur. By the age of 19 young
Merlin was working as a mechanic in Paris and by the age of 25 he was in London
as part of the entourage of the Spanish Ambassador, the Conde de Fuentes. He
soon left the service of the count and after a short stint working for a
goldsmith in Covent Garden he took a position at James Cox’s newly founded Museum
in Spring Gardens, becoming the principal mechanic. Cox was a jeweller and
goldsmith who specialised in the production of exquisite clockwork automata and
mechanical clocks; Merlin worked with him on what became his most famous creation,
the silver swan automata, now in the Bowes Museum in County Durham. Mark Twain
saw it at the Paris exhibition in 1867 and described it in Innocents Abroad; ‘I watched the Silver Swan, which had a living
grace about his movement and a living intelligence in his eyes - watched him
swimming about as comfortably and unconcernedly as it he had been born in a
morass instead of a jeweller’s shop - watched him seize a silver fish from
under the water and hold up his head and go through the customary and elaborate
motions of swallowing it...'
In
1773 he parted company with Cox and set up on his own as maker of mathematical
and musical instruments. He continued to apply his mind to the invention of
novelties and developed ingenious hybrid musical instruments such as an
adaptation for a harpsichord which allowed to played as a piano and a
combination of the square piano and the organ called the claviorganum. In an advertisement dated 1779 he boasted of
“the various instruments and pieces of mechanism, which he has constructed,
such as his great collection of Patent Piano Forte, double Bass harpsichords,
and portable instruments called Celestinetts, and his new Violins, Tenor and
Bass, and improves violins, tenor, and bass, tho’ ever so bad, makes them equal
to the best Cremonea.” We know that Merlin’s novel instruments found a
commercial market because by the late 1770’s he took a former employee to court
for making and selling combined harpsichord piano’s without his permission. He
also found himself in court for having reneged on a deal with a builder to
construct a large new house on the corner of Duchess Street and Portland Place.
The house was to be built to Merlin’s own design with large show rooms to
display his inventions; it was the first hint that he was harbouring ambitions
to open his own museum.
 |
| John Joseph Merlin - a portrait by Thomas Gainsborough |
Merlin’s
Museum of Musical Instruments and Mechanical Inventions opened for the delight
and education of the nobility, gentry and public in Princes Street, Hanover
Square in April 1783. For the twenty years Merlin was the proprietor he filled
with it with mechanical marvels designed to please the novelty hungry London
public. Morning admission, between 11 and 3 cost 2s 6d and evening admission
(from 7 until 9, and including tea or coffee) was 3 shillings For this modest fee patrons could admire
perpetual motion clocks that required no winding up, watch The Grand Turk or
Stone eater consuming artificial stones, marvel at the rotating table which
enabled a hostess to fill up to twelve cups of tea without leaving her place or
the device to enable blind persons to play cards, be horrified at the Steel
Tarantula, view two antique busts by means of which ‘ any person may converse
with another without being heard by the company’, see mobile bird cages, listen
to musical boxes, try out his patented chair to relieve the pain of gout, and
view his automata. These included, according to Charles Babbage who saw them as
a young man, 'two uncovered female figures of silver, about twelve inches high'
one of which “used an eye-glass occasionally and bowed frequently as if
recognizing her acquaintances' and the other ‘an admirable danseuse, with a
bird on the forefinger of her right hand, which wagged its tail, flapped its
wings and opened its beak.' Merlin was often at hand in person to show off his
exhibits and explain how they worked.
 |
|
“ln what he calls his unrivalled mechanical chariot he was
to be seen for many years past very frequently riding about Hyde Park and various
parts of the town particularly on Sundays In the front of this carriage
something resembling a dial was placed By a mechanical communication from the
left wheel to this dial c which which he called way wise he was informed by the
hand and figures thereupon how far he had travelled His general course unless
on particular business was about eight miles in and out In this carriage he
never had the trouble to open the doors or windows and even the horse was
whipped if necessary by his pulling a string to which a whip was attached by a
spring From this curious carriage and his portrait we have presented our
readers with an exact engraving To have this carriage painted with various
emblematical figures of Merlin the ancient British Magician it cost Mr Merlin
last summer the sum of eighty guineas.” Kirby's Wonderful and Eccentric Museum:
Or, Magazine of Remarkable Characters London 1803
|
The
mechanic was also something of an exhibitionist. He made regular appearances at
Ranelagh Gardens and at the Masquerades held at the Pantheon gliding through
the crowds on his roller skates, dressed as the Goddess of Fortune with his own
wheel, or posing as an electrotherapeutic physician, shocking the dancers as he
moved among them. In March 1778 ‘Mr. Merlin, the Mechanic,’ appeared at the
Pantheon ‘as a Gouty Gentleman, in a Chair of his own Construction, which, by a
Transverse Direction of two Winches, he wheeled about himself with great
Facility to any Part of the Room.’ In May be was back; according to the Norfolk
Chronicle “Merlin the mechanic also worked a boat around the room and occasionally
freighted his vessel with a Harlequin, a Columbine, a witch, a wizard or one of
those charm bearing fair ladies whose looks serve to bewitch the beholder be he
ever so grave, cold or phlegmatic. The chair which Merlin appeared in at the
last masquerade was also filled by one of his disciples who moves in circles through
the company.” After an appearance as a Vestal in 1789 he appeared the following
year as ‘a Cupid, in his chariot, which moved by some ingenious mechanism round
the rooms, pointed his arrows at several ladies, who seemed to be willing
votaries to his power.’
Merlin
was generally thought to have been a life long bachelor but Margaret Debenham
in a recent study has shown that this is untrue. In her research into the
dispute between Merlin and the builder of the house on the corner of Duchesse
Street and Portland Place she discovered that ‘in the early summer of 1777 they
[Merlin and the builder Nicholl] had taken a ride out into the countryside
together and chatted about Merlin's forthcoming marriage. According to Nicholl,
Merlin had been doubtful that the marriage would take place in time for him to
move into the new house that winter. Merlin, on the contrary, protested in his
own testimony that he had wanted the house completed as soon as possible in
readiness for him and his intended wife.’ Debenham also uncovered marriage
records which show that the mechanic married Anne Goulding on 17 September 1783
at St Saviours in Southwark and that the couple had two children, Ann and
Joseph. Merlin was left a widower with
two relatively young children when Ann died in 1793 and was buried at
Christchurch in Southwark.
Merlin’s
own health began to decline in the late 1790’s. He was last seen in public in
January 1803 in Hyde Park in a carriage without horses. On the 8th February he placed a notice in the
newspapers lamenting that ill health had kept him from the museum for three weeks
and apologising that during this time one of his people had had the temerity to
exhibit his ‘unparalleled Magical Moving Pictures’ and being ‘unacquainted with
the management of that grand machine…exhibited it in so slovenly and improper a
manner that has nearly obscured the intrinsic merit of the magical illusion.’
He promised to attend himself in person to remedy the situation. On 24 February
another notice informed the public that after ten years of ill health he
intended to retire to the continent and was therefore compelled to sell his
collection. He professed himself ‘highly grateful to a nation which has so long
protected and encouraged him.’ The retirement to the continent had been left
too late; he died on 04 May and was buried at St Mary’s Church, Paddington
Green. His final instruction? According to Kirby's
Wonderful and Eccentric Museum: Or, Magazine of Remarkable Characters ‘he
had his favourite horse thirty years and to prevent any ill usage of this
animal after his death he ordered him to be shot which was done accordingly.’
 |
| Excerpt from the burial register at St Mary's Paddington Green showing Merlin's burial on May 8th |
No comments:
Post a Comment