Dulcitone
A
dulcitone is a
keyboard instrument in which sound is produced by a range of tuning forks, which vibrate when struck by felt-covered hammers activated by the keyboard.The instrument was designed by Thomas Machell of
Glasgow and manufactured by the firm of Thomas Machell & Sons during the late
19th and early
20th centuries.
A significant feature of the dulcitone was its portability, a product of its lightweight and compact construction and the fact that the tuning forks (unlike, for instance, the strings of a
piano) were not prone to going out of tune.Surviving examples exist as far afield as
New Zealand, where one is preserved in the Whittaker's Musical Museum.
*
Whittaker's Musical Museum: DulcitoneRhodes piano, technically an electrically amplified dulcitone.
