Suwanone Museum
Suwanone Museum is located in Shimosuwamachi town in Nagano Prefecture.
Before World War II, the area was the home of a thriving silkworm culture and silk industries. After the war, it became known for precision engineering of devices such as cameras and music boxes. There is a concert hall on the second floor of the Suwanone Museum, which features daily “music box recitals.” You can experience putting a music box together in the workshop on the first floor.http://www.nidec-sankyo.co.jp/museum/
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1796
Music boxes are thought to have originated from the practice of striking bells of various sounds to let you know the time in European towns during the middle ages (called "carillon"). The bells were subsequently downsized, and then instead of bells, they began to use thin metal bands to play a melody. This configuration is the same that of today's cylinder music boxes.
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End of 19th century
A new disk type music box was developed in Germany. The disks could be exchanged and were mass-produced, so the lots of melodies were available. Large, furniture piece music boxes were placed in pubs and restaurants to provide automated musical performances. With the invention of the Edison phonograph in the twentieth century, however, the music box was forced to concede its prominence as the main source of automated music.
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1948
The first music box produced by Sankyo Seiki Mfg. Co. (currently Nidec Sankyo Corporation) was turned out in 1948. The tone of the box however could be described as sounding like someone striking the bottom of buckets with a stick.
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1960s
In the 1940s and 50s, almost all music box parts were made of metal. In the 1960s, however, the gears started being made of plastic.
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1980s
Parts began to be made of plastic, such as a barrel containing a spring. Duracon (polyacetal) was used for most of these. This enabled automatic assembly, with as many as 90 million units being produced annually at its peak. This accounted for 90 percent of the global market.
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1985
Custom-made, high quality music boxes "ORPHEUS" that attempted to incorporate the sound of skilled craftsmen made their appearance. The luxury music boxes, featuring over thirty notes, were made to have dramatically extended playing time. An ORPHEUS section has been set up in the museum. The world's first electric disk music box was produced in 1995.
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