This extremely rare silent gravity metronome in metal is signed on the front “PATENTED / BREVETE”. On the back it reads “DRP / 350358”. [D.R.P. – Deutsches Reichspatent]. The DRP, or German empire patent, was a patent, assigned from 1877 until 1945. This patent number was assigned in the year 1922… making this unusual metronome possibly 100 years old! There is what appears to be a serial number on the reverse which is 220396. It has its original cardboard box with glass insert and instructions in German.

This metronome was invented by Miltiade or Miltiades Constantin Pappas who seems to have been an engineer based in Huyssinghen (Brabant) in Belgium. He was born in Constantinople in 1884 and went on to patent his metronome in several countries from 1918 onwards including the USA in 1925.

He described his metronome for the patent application:

“The present invention relates to metronomes used in the teaching of music, and is based on the use as a metronome of a differential pendulum, said invention being mainly characterized by the fact that such pendulum does not rock about an axis, but rolls on a hard flat surface.”