Description:
Officially, the cylinder music box made its appearance in 1796. At that time a Swiss watchmaker, Antoine Favre (1767-1828), had the idea of incorporating a musical mechanism in clocks. And so was born the carillon.
Originally invented by Antoine Favre was not based on the principle that the spikes or pins lifted the blades of a comb by putting them into vibration, but provided a flat disk whose action points agreed the plates.
Quickly came the idea of replacing the disc with a cylinder fitted with pins placed in parallel with several series of individual plates. At that time the manufacture of bells was very traditional. The parties, in fact, were assembled by individual artisans in their homes. These were often farmers who took advantage of the long winter days to earn some ‘.
The musical arrangements were then assembled and placed in boxes from other people hired by the manufacturers themselves. Around 1820 he had the idea of replacing the plates with a comb or segmented keyboard made of a single axis for increased resonance. The most important improvement was a result of the invention dampers whose function was to limit the vibrations of the blades parasite. These dampers were initially made of chicken feathers.