I agree with your 'wearing out' theory, though I'll be interested to
hear from others more knowledgeable.  I assume you are winding a metal
spring which surely would eventually loose it's 'springiness'... but
could be replaced, I suppose, if you can still get that kind of spring.

Anyway, we took our wonderful music box with those huge metal discs to
the professional sound studio at our local University. They recorded all
the 20 or so discs for us, and put it on a CD, which we play for
visitors. It sounds wonderful, and we are using it to educate the public
about some of the challenges of managing our newly acquired historic
house. They love hearing it and don't mind at all that it isn't coming
direct from the music box. Also, we can replicate the CD's, which we may
decide to sell in the Museum Store.

Lucy Sperlin
Collections Chair
Chico Museum Assoc.'s Patrick Ranch
Chico, CA

David Ryan wrote:
>
> Dear Colleagues,
> A community member who is an accomplished organist and repairs and restores
> music boxes has suggested that we play our music boxes for the public.
> According to him, they are like any other instrument and need to be played
> in order to give them the best care.  I have heard that the Stradivarius
> Museum plays their violins regularly- so there must be something to this.
> In general, we do not use our artifacts as intended (we don't wind our
> clocks, run our motors, use our carriages, etc.)  Common sense tells me
> that if you use something you are wearing it out a little every time that
> you use it.  This goes contrary to preventive conservation principles.  We
> have several music boxes that are part of a larger collection that were
> obviously very expensive and top of the line models when new.  These
> probably would sound quite beautiful.  I have been asked by our curator to
> put this question on Museum-L.  If you have music boxes- or other musical
> instruments in your collections, do you ever play them?    Thank you for
> any thoughts you have on this topic.
> Sincerely,
> David Ryan
> Registrar
> Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum
> www.cspm.org
>
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