At Lichfield he met Mr. Bolton of Snow Hill, Birmingham, who asked him to his house, and showed him over the principal manufactories of Birmingham, where he further improved his knowledge of practical mechanics.  His time was now principally devoted to inventions; he received a silver medal in 1768 from the Society of Arts for a perambulator, as he calls it, an instrument for measuring land.  This is a curious instance of the changed use of a word, as we now associate perambulators with babies.  In 1769 he received the Society’s gold medal for various machines, and about this time produced what might have been the forerunner of the bicycle, ’a huge hollow wheel made very light, withinside of which, in a barrel of six feet diameter, a man should walk.  Whilst he stepped thirty inches, the circumference of the large wheel, or rather wheels, would revolve five feet on the ground; and as the machine was to roll on planks, and on a plane somewhat inclined, when once the vis inertia of the machine should be overcome, it would carry on the man within it as fast as he could possibly walk. ...  It was not finished; I had not yet furnished it with the means of stopping or moderating its motion.  A young lad got into it, his companions launched it on a path which led gently down hill towards a very steep chalk-pit.  This pit was at such a distance as to be out of their thoughts when they set the wheel in motion.  On it ran.  The lad withinside plied his legs with all his might.  The spectators who at first stood still to behold the operation were soon alarmed by the shouts of their companion, who perceived his danger.  The vehicle became quite ungovernable; the velocity increased as it ran down hill.  Fortunately, the boy contrived to jump from his rolling prison before it reached the chalk-pit; but the wheel went on with such velocity as to outstrip its pursuers, and, rolling over the edge of the precipice, it was dashed to pieces.

’The next day, when I came to look for my machine, intending to try it upon some planks, which had been laid for it, I found, to my no small disappointment, that the object of all my labours and my hopes was lying at the bottom of a chalk-pit, broken into a thousand pieces.  I could not at that time afford to construct another wheel of that sort, and I cannot therefore determine what might have been the success of my scheme.’

He goes on to say:  ’I shall mention a sailing carriage that I tried on this common.  The carriage was light, steady, and ran with amazing velocity One day, when I was preparing for a sail in it with my friend and schoolfellow, Mr. William Foster, my wheel-boat escaped from its moorings just as we were going to step on board.  With the utmost difficulty we overtook it; and as I saw three or four stage-coaches on the road, and feared that this sailing chariot might frighten their horses, I, at the hazard of my life, got into my carriage while it was under full sail, and then, at a favourable part of the road, I used the means I had of guiding it easily out of the way.  But the sense of the mischief which must have ensued if I had not succeeded in getting into the machine at the proper place, and stopping it at the right moment, was so strong, as to deter me from trying any more experiments on this carriage in such a dangerous place.’