Hobbies And Interests
Before the Music Box
According to the Automatic Musical Instrument Collector's Association (AMICA), the concepts that were required for the invention of the music box were first put into use with other mechanical musical instruments. As of the 15th century, the basic mechanism that would later be introduced into the music box had already been developed in the form of the carillon. The carillon was simply a revolving cylinder attached to a winding spring that moved cogs controlling small hammers. The hammers, depending on how they were spaced, would strike a line of bells to different tunes.
Miniaturization of the Carillon
Over time, just as clockwork began to miniaturize from the large, elaborate town bells of Europe between the 1400s and 1700s, the components of the carillon were also available in smaller sizes. This was a long process, and AMICA claims that it was not until the late 1700s and early 1800s that the potential for music boxes was realized. The earliest forms of music box from this era were very small carillon mechanisms put into mantle clocks, which would play popular songs or rhymes at certain times. But as these early devices still used bells, rather than tuned metal combs, they were still not technically music boxes.
Music Box Breakthrough
AMICA attributes first use of tuned strips rather than bells to achieve a more precise sound and broader scale to Antoine Favre in 1796. From there, these new musical devices were added to pocket watches and, for the first time, small boxes designed for home use. By 1811, music boxes were made and sold as far away from Europe as Iran. There was a rapid advancement in the technology of music boxes in this period, which included the use of one-piece combs rather than segmented combs, and the metal could now be so finely cut and tuned that any comb could have as much as 325 teeth. Winders used keys instead of levers, and music boxes could hold up to 12 tunes.
End of the Handmade Music Box
By the end of the 1800s, music boxes were also being outfitted with movable figures by workers toiling to fit minute pins into brass cylinders. At the height of handmade music box production (which also coincided with the American Civil War), high-end music boxes could boast organ pipes or triangles. According to Collector's World, by the 1880s, factories and machines had begun replacing the individual workers, and machine-made components quickly became the staple of the music box industry.