Welcome to the Disc Music Box Project

When projects collide: we discovered after initiating this project that another expert, Kevin McElhone was already far advanced on a similar project, which has now resulted in an excellent reference book!

I can only encourage you to purchase this amazing book . Please see under the Buy Book menu how to purchase the book.

Further, if you have a music box, do consider entering its details into ROMFI, as that we all can benefit from knowing how many music boxes of different types are still in existance.

Other than a few updates I have left the website as it originally was particularly for the photographs.

Why this Project? ....... Now is a most optimal time.

It is almost 100 years after the cessation of the main production of these amazing instruments. Disc Music boxes began to be produced from about 1889 until 1910 and even a little beyond. This industry began at a time before any commercially recorded music was available, obviously before radio or TV, and an epoque prior to that when industries or houses used electricity, and when most people still got around with horses.

The last great reference works were created decades ago, The Musical Box by Dr. Arthur Ord-Hume, Graham Webb’s Disk & Cylinder music box handbooks, and the amazing Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments by Q David Bowers.

As great as these works are, they do contain many gaps. With the added knowledge of the last few decades, and new technologies that promote information exchange, and the energizing of all interested parties, who can assist in filling the knowledge gaps, we can, as a networked community, achieve the creation of the ultimate Music Box reference book.

The world has changed a lot since the above mentioned, and other books were written;
- the Iron curtain has fallen, allowing access to what was previously Eastern Germany, particularly the area around Leipzig which was the center of the Disc Music Box industry.
- Communication technology has taken a quantum leap forward, with the Internet allowing a collaboration between Music Box owners that was inconceivable a few decades ago.

Another compelling reason for now being the right time, is that there are a lot of talented and knowledgeable people around who have been interested in the subject for decades, and who can assist this endeavour with their vast experience and knowledge. Our concern is that in future decades, researchers may no longer have this opportunity. We believe that we are at a watershed of knowledge, that we now need to consolidate and save this knowledge now, or it will be forever lost.