A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Snuff-box, Musical

by Alfred James Hipkins

SNUFF-BOX, MUSICAL. A mechanical invention which has given pleasure to thousands from the peculiar—what for want of a better expression we may call Æolian—charm arising from the production of harmonics in the solid part of the steel comb which provides the necessary reinforcement to the sounds emitted by the teeth of the comb. The motive power is a pinned cylinder resembling the barrel of a mechanical organ, and made to shift on the same principle; the working power is a spring; the mechanism and rotation are closely allied to those of a watch or clock; and the teeth of the comb which produce the notes are measured to scale.

Musical boxes were invented about the beginning of the present century, probably in Switzerland, the chief seat of their production, where there are now some twenty principal manufactories. About 30,000 are said to be made annually, half of which are below the selling value of 50 francs each. The original musical boxes are small and not unlike a snuff-box in appearance. They are now made of all sizes, the cost ranging from 20s. to 50l.

About 1830, a very favourite composition with amateurs of the pianoforte was the 'Snuff-box Waltz,' the composer of which preserved his anonymity under the initials M.S. The scale and arpeggio passages, played with much use of both pedals, produced something of the musical-box effect upon the hearer, enhanced a few years later by the introduction in pianos of brass bridges and harmonic bars, which are to a certain extent subject to the acoustical conditions which affect the musical-box combs. Such a passage as the following, from the 'Snuff-box Waltz,' illustrates the kind of imitation that was possible:

Of late years, bells, drums, castagnettes, free reeds worked by bellows, and more recently a 'zither,' produced by a sheet of thin paper resting on the teeth of the comb, have been introduced, and have not raised the musical value of the instrument, any more than similar introductions early in the century raised the value of the pianoforte. As pointed out by Mr. Moonen in his recent Report on the Melbourne Exhibition, the real improvements have been in the mechanical portion, by the accurate 'pointing' or adjustment on the cylinder of as many as 36 airs; the obtaining a constant movement for an hour and a half without requiring to wind up the spring during that time; the possibility of shifting the barrel in such a manner that an air 'noted' may be played without the necessity of going through all the others in rotation, and the important one of the interchange of barrels made to fit any box.

[ A. J. H. ]