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An unusual burr
elm and ebony
metronome, KEEPING PERFECT
formed as a
pyramid, brass
movement
engraved
“L Desoutter, TIME:
1 Maddox
Street,
London”
with The Evolution of the Metronome
pineapple
finial
and paw
feet,
9.5in By Maxine Carter-Lome

f you ever took music lessons chances are you are familiar with the metronome; the audible task master
that helped you to keep time with the music. While digital software has replaced the need for the box
Iwith the swinging pendulum, it remains an endearing and “old school” approach to keeping the beat.
Although Johann Maelzel (1772–1838), a German inventor, engineer, and showman, is credited
with patenting the metronome as we know it in 1815 (under the title “Instrument/Machine for the
Improvement of all Musical Performance”), a kind of metronome was among the inventions of Andalusian
polymath Abbas ibn Firnas (810–887 A.D.), an inventor, physician, chemist, engineer, Andalusian musician,
and Arabic-language poet. Among his many inventions, Abbas Ibn Firnas is known to have designed a water
clock called al-Maqata, devised a means of manufacturing colorless glass, invented various glass
planispheres, made corrective lenses (“reading stones”), devised a chain of rings that could be used to sim-
ulate the motions of the planets and stars, and developed a process for cutting rock crystal that allowed
Spain to cease exporting quartz to Egypt to be cut. He also created an instrument with an inverted pendu-
lum that could be set to a beat at so many times per minute with a loud ticking to keep the tempo – the
precursor to the metronome more finely evolved centuries later.
In 1581, Galileo Galilei studied and discovered that pendulums (of any given length) vibrated in the
same time, whether the amplitude was large or small. In other words, regardless of amplitude, the pendulum
will take about the same amount of time to complete one period, or back-and-forth swing. Galileo realized
his discovery could be applied to timekeeping, leading to the invention of the pendulum-powered clock by
Christiaan Huyghens in the 17th century and George Graham in the 18th.
In 1696, Etienne Loulié (1654–1702), a noted French musical theorist, attempted to apply the principles
of the pendulum to a metronome. His “machine” was merely an adjustable pendulum with calibrations, but
without sound or an escapement to keep it in motion. Plaguing Loulié and his contemporaries was the prob-
lem of creating a metronome that would beat slowly enough to keep the tempo of many classical musical
piecdes, often set at a mere 40 to 60 beats per minute.
In 1814, the German
inventor Dietrich Nikolaus
Winkel developed a “musi-
cal chronometer” capable of
keeping fast and slow times,
but he failed to patent his
ca. 1880 Brass Metronome
device. Through question-
able practice (so goes the
story), Johann Maelzel
appropriated Winkel’s
ideas, added a scale, called it
a “metronome” and started
manufacturing the metro-
nome under his own name
in 1816: “Maelzel’s
Metronome.” Maelzel also
patented this creation in
London, Paris, and Vienna.
Maelzel’s metronome used
an escapement (think of the
toothed wheel that makes a
watch tick) to transfer
power from a wound-up
spring to a weighted pendu-
lum. Each swing of the
pendulum produced an
audible tick, and users
could adjust a dial to
control the tempo of the
Antique German “Coffin-style” metronome “New Conductor Metronome,” an elaborate decorative metronome with automation, ca. 1838 ticking. An early example
with tin case Photo: Historisches Museum Basel

34 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles