History of the Music Box

Antoine Favre, a watchmaker from Geneva, first incorporated a gadget in watches, perfume bottles, pendants in 1796. This gadget, a “music comb”, if you will. The music comb is a comb shaped device that is made from steel then hardened and tempered to produce a number of 'springy' teeth varying in length.  Pins set into a revolving cylinder pluck the teeth.  As each tooth is plucked it produces a musical note.  The note produced by each tooth is determined by, the length of that particular tooth. Each tooth, a different note.  The pins in the cylinder are arranged in such a way that a melody arises from the comb as the cylinder turns. 

Disclaimer~Music box tune samples on this page are NOT from the actual music box shown, but are representative samples of music boxes for your enjoyment.

Cylinder Music Boxes

Holiday Player Piano Musical

Cylinder music boxes were a means of providing live music without performers. The music produced was like an ensemble of harpists or bell choir. It was not without it's limitations, however. One had to be happy with the music the box came with. In order to provide several tunes in one music box, a shifting cylinder was invented. As one set of pins on the cylinder rang the resonating "teeth" of the "comb" other sets of pins (representing other songs) passed quietly between the teeth. At the end of a song, the cylinder would shift sideways, causing the next set of pins to line up with the "teeth". In this way, several tunes (sometimes as many as 12) could be played by one cylinder music box.

Later, along came the interchangeable cylinder music box. The cylinder could actually be removed and replaced with another one that had different tunes. The pins are fragile though, making these delicate, and one's song selection was still limited.

Appearance of the Symphonium or Disc Style Music Box

Musical Bell Symphonium® Music Box

The limitations of the cylinder led to the development of Symphonion disc music box. This new innnovation made other choices easy to add and fairly inexpensive, as well as making a good music box more affordable. Symphonion (or Kalliope) boxes were originally made in Leipzig, Germany during the late 1880's. A special technique was developed to punch projections onto a steel disk and these were used, to pluck the comb. Some of these early music boxes or symphoniums played disks as big as 24 or even 27 inches in diameter. A 24 inch disk normally plays for 2 minutes. They were especially designed to accept seperate song discs, allowing one music box to play many pieces. As improvements continued, options were added. Occasionly, the music was accompanied by bells which played along. Somewhere along the way, a choice could be made to play the bells or turn them off by means of a switch placed at the right of the box near the winding crank.

Animated Bell Symphonium® Music Box

Other music box makers soon caught on and began building their own masterpieces. Many of the makers of disk music boxes incorporated their mechanisms into hall clocks, and cylinder music boxes have been placed in pocket watches and watch cases. Traditional wood music boxes, as well now being inlaid with fine woods and carvings. Musical boxes were built into birdcages, jewelry boxes, boxes with dancing dolls, snowglobes and more. These older music boxes are sought after by collectors everywhere and are exquisitely crafted

Crown Jewels Music Box

With the invention of the Gramophone (or record player) music boxes were soon replaced. Mainly due to song availability, choices of vocal or orchestral and affordability. The disk music box is returning, many resembling cherished 19th century antique wood music boxes your grandparents might have had. Highly collectible, few things are as magical as a music box at captivating young and old. The music we hear stirring the senses, evoking cherished memories and the emotions of the magic of love.