History of the Music Box

A musical box (or music box) is a 19th century automatic musical instrument
that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving
cylinder so as to strike the tuned teeth of a steel comb. They were developed
from musical snuff-boxes of the 18th century, and called carillons � musique.
Some of the more complex boxes also have a tiny drum and small bells, in
addition to the metal comb. Alec Templeton, an avid collector of music boxes,
and a professional concert musician, once noted that the tone of a musical box
is unlike that of any musical instrument.

The original snuff boxes were tiny
containers which could fit into a gentleman's waist coat pocket. The musical
boxes could have any size from that of a hat box to a large piece of
furniture. Most of them were table top specimens though. They were usually
powered by clockwork and originally produced by artisan watchmakers.

For most of the 19th century the bulk of musical box production was
concentrated in Switzerland, building upon a strong watch making tradition.
The first musical box factory was opened there in 1815 by J�r�mie Recordon and
Samuel Junod. There were also a few manufacturers in Bohemia and Germany. By
the end of the 19th century some of the European makers had opened factories
in the United States.

The cylinders where normally made of metal and powered by a spring. In some
of the costlier models, the cylinders could be removed to change melodies,
thanks to an invention by Paillard in 1862, which was perfected by Metert, of
Geneva in 1879. In some exceptional models there were four springs, to provide
continuous play for up to three hours.

The very first boxes at the end of the 18th century made use of metal
disks. The switch over to cylinders seems to have been complete after the
Napoleonic wars. In the last decades of the 19th century however, mass
produced models such as the Polyphon and others all made use of
interchangeable metal disks instead of cylinders. The cylinder based machines
rapidly became a minority.

The term "musical box" is also applied to clockwork devices where a
removable metal disk or cylinder was used only in a "programming" function
without producing the sounds directly by means of pins and a comb. Instead,
the cylinder (or disk) worked by actuating bellows and levers which fed and
opened pneumatic valves which activated a modified wind instrument or plucked
the chords on a modified string instrument. Some devices could do both at the
same time, and were often combinations of player pianos and musical boxes,
such as the Orchestrion.

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th most musical
boxes were gradually replaced by Player pianos, which were more versatile and
loud, and also melodious, when kept tuned, and by the smaller gramophones
which had the advantage of playing back voices. Series production rapidly
disappeared and all the important companies closed their doors. A few of the
original ones found new markets.

Cheap windup music box movements (including the cylinder and comb and the
spring) continued to be produced in countries like Japan, and later on in
other countries with low production costs, to give a bit of music to mass
produced jewelry boxes and novelty items. These movements are also sold in
retail outlets or by catalog for hobbyists who wish to make simple musical
miniatures.

Surviving musical boxes from the 19th century and the early 20th century
are prized by collectors and there is a more or less constant manufacturing of
reproductions.

In Switzerland and the United States coin-operated music boxes, usually
capable of playing several tunes, were installed in places like train stations
and amusement parks. Some of the models had a mechanism for automatically
changing the metal disks. These were, in an sense, the precursors to
jukeboxes. However, since they produced music instead of playing back any
sound, including human voices singing, they soon disappeared from their
intended venues, displaced by the jukebox.

Because most of the coin-operated
music boxes were built for rough treatment (such as typical slapping and
kicking by a disgruntled customer) many of these large models have survived
into the 21st century, despite their relatively low production quantities.
They are eagerly sought by collectors who have the space for their large or
very large cabinets.

The bedpan is the relatively heavy metal foundation on which all the other
pieces are fastened, usually by screws.

The ratchet lever or the windup key
is used to put the spring motor under tension, that is to wind it up.

The spring motor or motors (2 or more can be used to make playing times
longer) give anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or more of playing time.
The comb is a flat piece of metal with dozens or even hundreds of tuned teeth
of different lengths.

The cylinder is the programming object, a metallic version of a punched
card which, instead of having holes to express a program, is studded with tiny
pins at the correct spacing to produce music by striking the teeth of the comb
at the correct time. This function is played by the disc in a disc music box.

The disc is the programming object, a metallic version of a punched card
which, like it has holes to express a program, star wheels which turn with the
disc produce music by striking the teeth of the comb at the correct time. This
function is played by the cylinder in a cylinder music box.

Between the two world wars most of the Swiss companies converted to the
manufacture of other products requiring precise mechanical parts. Some went
back to making watches, others were eventually responsible for the famous
Bolex movie cameras and the Hermes typewriters.

Located near Lake Neuch�tel,
Reuge is one of the last of the Swiss survivors making music boxes of all
sizes and shapes, with or without automatons in imitation of past models of
the previous centuries or in a modern style with clear acrylic sides to see
the mechanical operation. They have in a sense branched out widely from their
original cylinder offerings since they now also offer traditional looking
music boxes with removable metal disks for around a 1,000 Euros, with each
disk costing in the neighborhood of 14 Euros. The higher range boxes with
removable cylinders and small assorted tables made of fine woods can cost up
to 34,000 Euros and about an equivalent number of US dollars. They also sell
several models of clear acrylic paperweights with a musical box movement
inside, for a minimum of about 45 Euros.

In Japan Sankyo Seiki still makes a wide variety of music boxes from tiny
musical key chains to much larger models. It also supplies movements to many
other manufacturers, or to clockmakers and clockmaker suppliers which
sometimes sell them retail to hobbyists for as low as 3 Euros each. Sankyo
Seiki bills itself as the biggest manufacturer of music boxes in the world,
and advertises that it controls 50% of the market. Recently, it has started
selling licenses for its music box tunes to cellular phone companies, for use
as ring tones. The company is an industrial concern which also makes magnetic
and hologram card readers, appliance components and miniature motors of all
kinds.

The Porter Music Box company of Vermont produces steel disc music boxes in
several formats. They offer clockwork, spring wound models as well as electric
ones. They stand out by their continuing production of discs, with a selection
of about a thousand tunes. The discs can also be played on many antique music
boxes bearing the Polyphony and Regina brand names.

This article is licensed under the "GNU Free Documentation License".
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Musical Box".