How does a wind up musical mechanism for music boxes, musical boxes or automatons (automata) work?

Lutèce Créations (www.automates-boites-musique.com), the european specialist in music boxes and automatons (or automata), offers through its Parisian shop and its websites, various old automatons (from the end of the 19th century century until the First World War) and vintage automata (from the 1950s) as well as mechanical music instruments including old or modern music boxes.
In this tutorial video "How does a wind up musical mechanism work?", Bill Hammack, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Illinois, will explain to you how a small musical mechanism for music boxes works.
You can visit his RUclips channel: / engineerguyvideo
Note that in this video Bill Hammack uses the word "music box" instead of using the word "musical mechanism". Which is imprecise because a music box is above all a container (a box) and a content (the musical mechanism that will generate the sound amplified by the box which will preferably be made of wood and if possible a softwood). It is not for nothing that most stringed or percussion musical instruments are made of wood.
Let's briefly recall what the components of a music box musical mechanism are:
A musical mechanism is made up of 4 essential parts: the plate, the comb, the drum, the barrel and the governor.
The plate is the support on which the various elements of the musical mechanism are fixed.
The comb, is the set of teeth of different lengths which have been tuned.
The drum bristles with pins which have been fixed by means of shellac inside it (especially for sufficiently large mechanisms).
The barrel is the envelope enclosing the flat spring which will supply the energy to the mechanism.
The governor consists of a vane attached to an endless screw.
Principle of operation of a music box musical mechanism:
After winding up the musical mechanism by turning the key a few times, the drum turns on an axis by the force of the barrel spring. The pins of the cylinder then raise the teeth and make them vibrate. The regularity of the speed is ensured by the vane of the governor which brakes the force of the spring by creating resistance to the air.
But all this is clearly shown to you in the video. We therefore wish you a good viewing. Do not hesitate to like and subscribe to receive videos of our reports, mechanical music concerts, interviews, auctions, documentaries and presentation of automata or music boxes.
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Link to Bill Hammack's channel: / @engineerguyvideo
Bill Hammack website: www.engineerguy.com/
The video in creative commons: • How a Wind Up Music Bo...
Keywords: automata / automaton / musical mechanism / musical mechanisms / music boxes / musical box / spring / keyboard / barrel / cylinder / drum / plate / pins / teeth / comb.
Hashtags: #musicalmechanism #musicalmechanisms #musicboxes

[@PotatoeSnow]

Funny, im subbed to this guy after his soda can episode.

[@imaniashley1138]

Thank you so much, I was wondering how they stopped the spring from unwinding so fast, these engineers of old are truly something else😢😢😢, thank you.

[@MagnaEssence]

I am definitely not DIY-ing a mechanism like that for my LITTERAL custom-built music box 💀(i am SURE i can make it, only a hand-cranked one though)
However, on the other hand, this is very cool!, i was beginning to wonder how these worked,
-i thought it might have been a regular spring inside that was un-wound (you know how they remember their set position?) but somehow slowed down...
but this makes sense, i almost had the idea right, except the spring is flat and not wound as a normal coil spring is.

[@imaniashley1138]

The springs used in old watches are called hair springs/ aka the first batteries of civilisation

[@DeclanMBrennan]

Beautifully explained. Quite an impressive amount of Engineering in a compact and cheap toy.
Maybe some of these techniques will be dusted off the next time a probe is sent to the surface of Venus, where it is too hot for electronics to function for long? NASA had a challenge in this area recently.

Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.

[@darrellludlow]

Great video. Awesome explanation.

[@michael9433]

Hey if you see this, I appreciate your video! A few questions if you'll indulge me:
1) Do you think bronze would be a sufficient material for the gearing mechanisms? I am hoping to use bronze casting to slightly over-size the gears and parts, and then bring them to tolerance with files, but I'd hate to do all that work if bronze would be insufficient. If it helps, I plan to use a copper-aluminum-nickel alloy.
2) Do you have a good reference for a resettable drum? One that could have moveable pegs? I know they tend to be built to be permanent, but I am hoping there may be a way to adjust a drum that is secure enough for usage.

[@ABWatchdog519]

I liked this very much.

Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.

[@cunegonde4]

My brain exploded

Visit the Lutèce Créations website: www.automates-boites-musique.com