Johann Scheibler

Johann Heinrich Scheibler (born 11 December 1777 Monschau, † January 20, 1837 in Krefeld ) was a velvet and silk factory in Krefeld. In addition, he was known as a self-taught music theorist.

Life and work

The son of a cloth manufacturer Wilhelm Scheibler (1737-1797) and Theresa Elizabeth Bocking (1744-1812), daughter of the businessman and state treasurer Johann Adolph Böcking from Trarbach / Mosel, and grandson of the cloth manufacturer and builder of the Red House in Monschau, Johann Heinrich Scheibler and nephew of 1781 ennobled Bernhard Georg von Scheibler, went to his school days in Monschau through several countries in Europe to be trained in the most important centers of textile manufacturing. He was particularly fascinated by the silk production, which he studied in Italy.

After his return to Germany Scheibler occurred around 1796 in Krefeld in the silk factory " Rigal, Heydweiller & Cie. " One. Here he met his future wife Anna Katharina Heidweiller (1785-1846), the daughter of the chief executives Friedrich Heydweiller, know that he married a little later. In 1810 Heydweiller made ​​him a partner and after the death of father in 1834 took over Scheibler for a short time along with his brother Franz Heinrich Baron von Rigal of the company. He founded the same year the velvet and band merchandise manufacture " Scheibler & Co" with shares which also established in Krefeld silk weaving " Von der Leyen ". His four sons were in the same period, also in his company, where Heinrich (1813-1878) and Robert Adolf Scheibler (1814-1875) as a silk manufacturer did their service, whereas the brothers Johann Friedrich (1807-1862) and Carl Ludwig Aurel Scheibler (1823-1905) were chiefly responsible for the import and export as Rohseidengroßhändler. Scheiblerstrasse company experienced in subsequent years a rapid upturn of the Johann Heinrich Scheibler, who himself bred silkworms in the other, due to his sudden death in 1837 and only three years after its founding, no longer mitbekam much.

After his death, the company " Scheibler & Co" was continued by his descendants, with the exception of one of his grandson, the future Cologne industrialist in the production of fertilizers Carl Johann Heinrich Scheibler. Other companies merged in the following decades, the Krefeld parent company to, such as in 1965 the Samtfabrik " Peltzer brothers ," whereupon one then to " Scheibler & Peltzer GmbH" was officially adopted. Finally, after 1985, the traditional enterprise " Christopher Andreae " was adopted from Cologne, with its global sales network, and the group had been extended by another subsidiary, " Sametex " in Kraslice, the company became international markets on a large scale. Nevertheless Due to the market situation, it did not prevent the to merge in 1998 " Girmes plants Grefrath " which, however, eventually went himself in 2003 on insolvency itself.

For the merits of Johann Heinrich Scheibler and his family for the city of Krefeld, a street was named after them in 1968.

Scheibler's employment with the acoustics

Ever since early youth showed Scheibler a great interest for physics activities, particularly in the field of acoustics, which caught his attention due to its wide range of musical talent. Initially he tried on his guitar, for better mood new divide the fingerboard, he invented in 1816 an instrument from 20 matched and mounted on two wooden discs Jew's harps, which was considered a forerunner of the harmonica and to which he gave the name "Aura". He agreed this even on different basic tones in order to allow chromatic melodies. More acoustic tests followed in other instruments, and finally him to the invention of a new managed " Tonmessers ( monochord ) ," which among other things, the exact determination of the concert pitch ( A - coated "a") to 440 hertz was possible. This achievement was recognized him in 1834 by the Assembly of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians. Although the standard frequency of had in the meantime been established by the Académie française to 435 Hz in 1858, came in 1939, the International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations in London again on the 440 Hz Scheiblerstrasse back that are still valid today.

Thanks to his many contacts to virtuosos of his time, he found many interested users of its methods and many pianists and organists left their instruments to their specifications right. His findings Scheibler wrote down in several publications, which met with great interest. He received inter alia by Louis Spohr, Sigismund von Neukomm, Ferdinand Ries, Moscheles and Moritz Hauptmann acknowledging resonances. Some took his findings in their own writings on, such as Johann Gottlob Töpfer in his work: The Scheibler'sche voting method, easily comprehensible explained and applied to new species published by grains in Erfurt 1842 /3 System.

Works (selection)

• The physical and musical Tonmesser, which ...; G. D. Bädeker, Essen, 1834
• About mathematical mood, temperatures and organ mood after vibration or shock differences, Krefeld, 1837

Literature and sources

• Robert Eitner: Scheibler, Johann Heinrich. In: General German Biography (ADB ). Volume 30, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig, 1890, pp. 702-704.
• Hans Joachim Ramm: Scheibler, Johann Heinrich. In: New German Biography ( NDB ). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2, pp. 626 f ( digitized ).
• Carl Johann Heinrich Scheibler: History and genealogy of the Scheibler, Cologne family, 1895 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf
• Hans Carl Scheibler and Karl Wülfrath: West German pedigrees Vol 1, Böhlau, Weimar, 1939
• Elizabeth Nay - Scheibler: he history of the Scheibler family, in: Foundation Scheibler Museum Red House Monschau (Hg ), Cologne 1994
• Johann Gottlob Töpfer: Scheibler'sche voting method, easily comprehensible explained and applied in new ways, grains, Erfurt 1842/3
• Rudolf Haase: Johann Heinrich Scheibler and its importance for the acoustics, in: Contributions to the Rhenish Music History, No. 19, Fire / Fellerer, Cologne, 1957
• Johann Heinrich Scheibler, in: The music in the past and present ( MGG2 ), people part 14, Sp 1206-1208, Barenreiter, Kassel 2005