Mechanical musical instrument in which projecting pins on a revolving brass cylinder or disk, encoding a piece of music, pluck tuned steel tongues.
It was probably invented с 1780 in Switzerland. With its modular cylinders or disks, it was a popular domestic instrument until displaced by the player piano and phonograph.
German music box, with disk in playing position, from Leipzig, c. 1900
By courtesy of the Musical Wonder House, Wiscasset, Maine; photograph, John Spinks