Dulcitone T. Machell
2nd half of the 19th century.
Invented and built by Thomas Machell in Glasgow in 1850, the Dulcitone is a keyboard instrument with an English-style action similar to that of the piano. The hammers, however, do not strike strings, but a series of tuning forks, producing a very sweet and pure sound, extremely weak. It is equipped with a lever, with the function of raising the dampers as in the piano.
Used for popular and religious music, it was supplanted in the late 19th century by a similar instrument, the Celesta, in which metal plates were used instead of tuning forks to produce a greater sonority.
