Music box

A music box is a special kind of box that plays music when you wind it up. The box has a little metal drum inside, called a cylinder, with bumps on it that make music when they hit metal prongs called tines. The bumps on the cylinder make different sounds depending on their shape and position, and they play in a certain order to create a melody.

To start playing music, you have to wind up the music box by turning a little metal crank on the side. This winds a spring inside the box, which stores up energy like a battery so that the box can play music for a while.

When you wind the box, you also wind up a tiny metal comb called the lamellae, which has little tines sticking out of it that act like a rake. When the cylinder rotates, the bumps on it pluck the tines on the lamellae, making music. The longer the cylinder, the more notes it can play, which means more complex melodies can be played.

Music boxes used to be very popular a long time ago, and people often kept them as treasured possessions or gave them as gifts. Today, you can still find music boxes in some stores, as well as online, and there are even some modern versions that play electronic music instead of relying on traditional mechanisms.