Talk:Music box

Grammar mistake
Hi

I am not a native English speaker, but it seems to me that in the example below, the sentence should start with 'There were' rather than 'There was':

There was many variations of large music machines, usually built for the affluent of the pre-phonograph 19th century. Some were called the Symphonium, others were called the Concert Regina Music Box machine. Both variations were as tall as a grandfather clock and both used interchangeable large disks to play different sets of tunes. Both were spring-wound and driven and both had a bell-like sound. The machines were often made in England, Italy, and America, with additional disks made in Switzerland, Austria, and Prussia. Early "juke-box" pay versions of them existed in public places also. Marsh's free Museum and curio shop in Long Beach, Washington State (USA) has several still-working versions of them on public display. The Musical Museum, Brentford, London has a number of machines[1] The Morris Museum in Morristown, NJ, USA has a magnificent collection, including interactive exhibits. In addition to video and audio footage of each piece, the actual instruments are demonstrated for the public daily on a rotational basis.[2]

Aethalides (talk) 07:03, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Links to archives.
Would be useful links to archives of recorded musical boxes, if there is any.

I dont see how placing a link to http://studentpages.scad.edu/~jgardn24/musicbox5.html is an advertisement or anything like that. It's an interactive website that I'm in no way affiliated with, that shows the inner workings of a music box and how one works.

24.222.215.47 19:28, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

I'd like an explanation as to why my link is being removed!

24.222.215.47 21:33, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Tsukini kawatte!
Does the famous Sailor Moon Densetsu locket exist in mechanical form (made by Sankyo or anybody else)? I have the usual electronic tone-based version (the luxury one with metallic casing) but it is still not the "real thing". I would get a peg-based one, if it is affordable. 82.131.210.162 19:38, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Whitney Music Box
I've added the Whitney Music Box to show how animation can demonstrate musical thirds, but as it is a virtual music box, I felt that the information would be best served on this page. Team4Technologies (talk) 23:29, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Title
I'm from the UK and I've never heard the usage musical box, only music box. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.144.145.25 (talk) 02:18, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Polyphon
There is a separate entry for polyphon which should be listed on this page somewhere, but I am not sure where. Perhaps an edit of the "evolving production" section could include this variant? That section needs tidying anyway. Elriana (talk) 20:27, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

This article needs the addition of info on two modern/recent musicbox developments.
Hello.

1) I notice there is an almost complete lack of information in the article about the current new type of music box, namely the punched-paper-tape music box, also called the "D.I.Y. musicbox". I suggest someone write up info about that new development in the musicbox world. Do you need ME to do that? Who wants to cooperate with me on writing-up that info? I don't know what authority to talk with, about this. If anyone has discussion on this, feel free to contact me at artpitkin@mail2nuclear.com, as I know a few things about this type of musicbox. One type (the most popular, due to its low price) is manufactured by "Kikkerland".  These "D.I.Y" or "punched paper-tape musicboxes" are sold on eBay.  YouTube videos of them are available, for example here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHiW_krWgow

2) And another development is the electric musicboxes. Both the "D.I.Y." (punch your own tune into a paper tape) and the (pinned-drum) type of musicboxes are now available as electric-motor-driven musicboxes (in addition to the spring-wound and hand-cranked types of musicboxes).

I really think SOMEONE should add these types of info, RECENT developments, in this area, musicboxes. I do not feel qualified, myself, to do it all, myself. So I would welcome a co-writer or an authority to provide significant guidelines.

Artpitkin (talk) 08:47, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

What about the Wintergatan Marble Machine?
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2016-03/02/marble-machine-video — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.28.166.3 (talk) 18:20, 24 May 2016 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
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Uncited material in need of citations
I am moving the following uncited material here until it can be properly supported with inline citations of reliable, secondary sources, per WP:V, WP:CS, WP:IRS, WP:PSTS, WP:BLP, WP:NOR, et al. This diff shows where it was in the article. Nightscream (talk) 13:49, 1 June 2022 (UTC)

Although the earliest known mechanical musical instruments predate music boxes (see timeline below), the original snuff boxes date back to the 18th century. They were tiny containers which could fit into a gentleman's waistcoat pocket. The music boxes could have any size from that of a hat box to a large piece of furniture, but most were tabletop specimens. They were usually powered by clockwork and originally produced by artisan watchmakers. For most of the 19th century, the bulk of music box production was concentrated in Switzerland, building upon a strong watchmaking tradition. The first music box factory was opened there in 1815 by Jérémie 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 were 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 switchover to cylinders seems to have been completed 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. There were many variations of large music machines, usually built for the affluent of the pre-phonograph 19th century.

The term "music 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 music boxes, such as the Orchestrion.

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, most music boxes were gradually replaced by player pianos, which were louder and more versatile and melodious, when kept tuned, and by the smaller gramophones which had the advantage of playing back voices. Regina produced combinations of these devices. Escalating labour costs increased the price and further reduced volume. Now modern automation is helping to bring music box prices back down.

Collectors prize surviving music boxes from the 19th century and the early 20th century as well as new music boxes being made today in several countries (see "Evolving Box Production", below). Inexpensive, small windup music box movements (including the cylinder and comb and the spring) that add a bit of music to mass-produced jewellery boxes and novelty items are now produced in countries with low labour costs.

Many kinds of music box movements are available to the home craft person, locally or through online retailers. A wide range of recordings and videos of historic music boxes is available on the web.

1760s: Watches are made in London by makers such as James Cox which have a pinned drum playing popular tunes on several small bells arranged in a stack.

1780: The mechanical singing bird is invented by the Jaquet-Droz brothers, clockmakers from La Chaux-de-Fonds. In 1848, the manufacturing of the singing birds is improved by Blaise Bontems in his Parisian workshop, to the point where it has remained unchanged to this day. Barrel organs become more popular.

1800: Isaac Daniel Piguet in Geneva produces repeating musical watches with a pinned horizontal disc operating radially arranged tuned steel teeth.

1811: The first music boxes are produced in Sainte-Croix; an industry which surpasses the watchmaking and lace industries, and rapidly brings renown to the town. At this time, the musical-box industry represents 10% of Switzerland's export. 1865: Charles Reuge, a watchmaker from the Val-de-Travers, settles in Sainte-Croix. He is one of many artisans making pocket watches with musical movements of the traditional calibre.

1870: A German inventor creates a music box with discs, therefore allowing an easier and more frequent change of tunes. It is also the golden years of automata. Already known in Egypt, they will be improved to become real works of art.

1892: Gustave Brachhausen, who had been involved with the manufacturer of Polyphon disk music boxes in Germany, sails for America to establish the Regina Music Box Company in New Jersey. Regina, whose boxes are renowned among collectors for their tone, becomes a success and some 100,000 are sold before sales cease in 1921.

Early 20th century: The invention of the phonograph, the First World War and the economic crisis in the '20s bring down Sainte-Croix's main industry and make the luxury music box completely disappear.

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. Some simply sold out to Reuge.

Located near Lake Neuchâtel, Reuge is one of the last of the Swiss survivors making music boxes of all sizes and shapes, with or without automatons in a modern style with clear acrylic sides to see the mechanical operation. They have branched out widely from their original cylinder offerings over the years, and now offer traditional-looking music boxes with removable metal disks for around 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. They also sell several models of clear acrylic paperweights with a music box movement inside, for a minimum of about 250 euros. They have, however, discontinued the smaller movements. Old Reuge music boxes are worth thousands of dollars but even so, cannot be compared to the fabulously large and highly complex music boxes which were produced in nineteenth-century Switzerland by legendary makers such as Nicole Frères or Paillard. Since approximatively 2007 Reuge developed a strong business in the world of "bespoke" customized pieces for leaders in business and politics.

Nidec Sankyo in Japan started up in the aftermath of World War II, using the latest in automation. Modern production methods resulted in reasonable prices, producing company growth. Sankyo started with small movements, introduced 50-note movements by the late 1970s, and in 2006 is producing disc boxes playing discs as large as 16" (with two 80-note combs and reminiscent of the "Mira") and are also working on a dual-cylinder 100-note movement. Sankyo now offers a wide variety of music boxes in Japan, and supplies movements to many other manufacturers and distributors. Some of these sell them retail (even online) 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 licences for its musical-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, industrial robots 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 Polyphon and Regina brand names.

The small 18-note musical movements are now being made almost exclusively in countries with low labour costs such as China and Taiwan. Many of these productions are used in mobiles, children's musical toys, and jewellery boxes.

In Switzerland, coin-operated music boxes, usually capable of playing several tunes, were installed in places such as train stations and amusement parks. Some of the models had a mechanism for automatically changing the metal disks. These were, in a sense, the precursors to jukebox. However, they soon disappeared from their intended venues and were displaced by the jukebox, which could produce a greater variety of sounds and full songs rather than warped fragments.

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




 * The bedplate 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, which is to wind it up.
 * The spring motor or motors (two 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, or 'reeds', 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 displacing the teeth of the comb at the correct time. The tines of the comb 'ring', or sound, as they slip off the pins. The disc in a disc music box plays this function, with pins perpendicular to the plane surface.
 * Multiple-tune cylinders have more than one set of pins intertwined on the same cylinder, with, for example, the B pins for a second song lying halfway between the B and C pins of the first song, etc. Offsetting the cylinder slightly relative to the comb brings the different set of pins into contact with the teeth, thereby playing an alternate piece of music. Many modern music boxes will have as many as four sets of pins intertwined, with a mechanism automatically shifting the cylinder from one song or movement to the next.