Some writers claim that Carter was a servitor at Christ Church, one of the University of Oxford's colleges during the 1850s and 1860s, at the same time that Lewis Carroll was there. However, there is no evidence for this claim (see below). Carter invented The Alarm Clock Bed, exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and which tipped out the sleeper at waking-up time into a tub of cold water. He was a cabinet-maker and owned a furniture and upholstery shop at 48-49 High Street in Oxford from 1875 to 1883 at No. 48,, and from 1861 to 1894 at No.49, where he employed five men. Census records for 1881 show that Carter lived above this shop with his wife, daughter, grand-daughter and two servants.