Johann nepomuk maelzel biography of williams

Johann Nepomuk Mälzel (Maelzel) (1772–1838) was a German inventor, engineer, and showman, best known for manufacturing a metronome and several music-playing automata and displaying a fraudulent chess machine, the famous Turk of Wolfgang von Kempelen.

Mäelzel was born in Regensburg, a town in eastern Bavaria.

The son of an organ builder, he received a comprehensive musical education.

Johann nepomuk maelzel biography of williams

In 1790, he decided to try his luck in Vienna by working to maintain musical instruments of all kinds. And, among organs and harpsichords, the imaginative Johann thought that he could invent new instruments with which to build the music of the future.

After several years of study and experiment, he produced an orchestrion instrument, which was publicly exhibited, and afterward sold for 3000 florins.

In 1800, Mälzel built a musical automaton (called Harmonika) that was set in the domed starry ceiling o