Johann Heinrich Scheibler (11 November 1777 – 20 January 1837) was a

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

manufacturer from

Crefeld Krefeld ( , ; ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its c ...

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

, without a scientific background, who went on to make contributions to the science of

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

as a self taught musicologist. He made a "tonometer" () from 56

tuning fork A tuning fork is an acoustic resonator in the form of a two-pronged fork with the prongs ( ''tines'') formed from a U-shaped bar of elastic metal (usually steel). It resonates at a specific constant pitch when set vibrating by striking it ag ...

s as an instrument for accurately measuring pitch by counting beating, described in 1834. "A wooden board...together with a small wooden mallet with which the forks are to be struck, and a good

metronome A metronome () is a device that produces an audible click or other sound at a uniform interval that can be set by the user, typically in beats per minute (BPM). Metronomes may also include synchronized visual motion, such as a swinging pendulum ...

, constitute Scheibler's tuning apparatus." If the frequency of a tuning fork is known, then a higher fork's frequency may be determined by using a metronome to determine the frequency of the beating: F1+beating=F2.

Joseph Sauveur Joseph Sauveur (; 24 March 1653 – 9 July 1716) was a French mathematician and physicist. He was a professor of mathematics and in 1696 became a member of the French Academy of Sciences. Life Joseph Sauveur was born in La Flèche, the son of a ...

(1653–1716) used this method to determine the relative frequencies of

organ pipe An organ pipe is a sound-producing element of the pipe organ that resonator, resonates at a specific Pitch (music), pitch when pressurized air (commonly referred to as ''wind'') is driven through it. Each pipe is tuned to a note of the musical ...

s and improve the earlier calculations of

Marin Mersenne Marin Mersenne, OM (also known as Marinus Mersennus or ''le Père'' Mersenne; ; 8 September 1588 – 1 September 1648) was a French polymath whose works touched a wide variety of fields. He is perhaps best known today among mathematicians for ...

based on

Mersenne's laws Mersenne's laws are laws describing the frequency of oscillation of a stretched string or monochord, useful in musical tuning and musical instrument construction. Overview The equation was first proposed by French mathematician and music theor ...

.Beyer (1999), p.10. His writings include: * ''Der physikalische und musikalische Tonmesser, welcher…'' he Physical and Musical Tonometer G. D. Bädeker, Essen, 1834. * ''Ueber mathematische Stimmung, Temperaturen und Orgelstimmung nach Vibrations-Differenzen oder Stößen'' n the mathematics of tuning: temperature and organ-tuning after alterations of vibration Krefeld, 1837.

References

1777 births 1837 deaths Scientists from the Kingdom of Prussia 19th-century German musicologists People from Krefeld People from Monschau {{germany-scientist-stub

See also

References