Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel (1777 – 28 September 1826) was the inventor of the first successful

metronome A metronome, from ancient Greek μέτρον (''métron'', "measure") and νομός (nomós, "custom", "melody") is a device that produces an audible click or other sound at a regular interval that can be set by the user, typically in beats pe ...

. He also invented the componium, an "automatic instrument" that could make endless variations on a musical theme. Winkel was born in Lippstadt, settled in Amsterdam shortly after 1800, and in 1814, while experimenting with

pendulums A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the ...

, he discovered that a pendulum weighted on both sides of the

pivot Pivot may refer to: *Pivot, the point of rotation in a lever system *More generally, the center point of any rotational system *Pivot joint, a kind of joint between bones in the body *Pivot turn, a dance move Companies *Incitec Pivot, an Austra ...

could beat steady time, even for the slow

tempos In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

often used in European classical music. Winkel donated the first model of his musical 'chronometer', dated 27 November 1814, to the Hollandsch Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letterkunde en Schoone Kunsten in Amsterdam. Unfortunately he did not appropriately protect his idea, and by 1816,

Johann Nepomuk Mälzel A metronome by Maelzel, Paris, 1815. Johann Nepomuk Maelzel (or Mälzel; August 15, 1772 – July 21, 1838) was a German inventor, engineer, and showman, best known for manufacturing a metronome and several music-playing automatons, and displayi ...

(sometimes 'Maelzel') added a Scale to the Instrument and

patented A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

it as the Mälzel Metronome, which remains in use to this day. Thus, even today Mälzel often incorrectly receives credit for what was rightly Winkel's creation. The original model is preserved in a Dutch museum. Winkel's death was announced this: Extensive discussions on the topic of whether Mälzel stole Winkel's intellectual property can be found in the German musical Letters of the timeAllgemeine musikalische Zeitung, Band 20, 1818
Online
/ref> and since. For example: A German text (would need translation) from 1845 reads: Another text (in 1870) wrote of the metronome.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winkel, Dietrich Nikolaus 1777 births 1826 deaths 19th-century Dutch inventors 19th-century German inventors Dutch people of German descent People from Lippstadt Engineers from Amsterdam