Serinette, a small barrel organ now used to train canaries to sing several tunes. It sounds the unison of the Larigot stop on the organ. See Organ, Larigot, Flageolet.

The barrel organ, and thus the serinette , which differs from it only in size, consists of two feeder bellows, or a double feeder; a windchest or pallet box, to which the wind from the bellows is brought through a pipe or wind trunk; a finger rail with stickers which open the pallets by pushing; and a pinned barrel that operates the fingers. The mechanism is set in motion by a crank that turns screw BD [Plate IV, fig. 2]. The shaft of the screw has an eccentric, C, connected to the bellows: it operates the lower feeder by means of iron link C m [fig. 3], whose upper end engages eccentric C, while lower end m engages a pin across a notch in the lower board of feeder M. [1] When the crank is turned, eccentric C causes link C m , connected to the lower board of the feeder, to rise and fall, taking in outside air and pushing it into the pallet box, whence it reaches the pipes when the finger stickers open the pallets. End D of shaft BD, cut as a screw, meshes with gear wheel d [fig. 3], mounted on one end of the barrel, which rotates one tooth for each rotation of crank AB. Therefore, there are as many strokes of the feeder bellows as there are teeth in wheel D, which may have as many as a hundred.

This instrument usually has a compass of one octave, so it must have 13 pipes and 13 fingers on the rail, wooden bar DE; the fingers are attached to the lower side by means of U-shaped iron staples fitted through a hole in the finger, the tips driven into the bar, so that the fingers can turn freely on the pivot at their center. At the end of the finger facing the pipe, sticker ab is attached by a small piece of leather, tied around the sticker and glued to the finger. At lower end b of the sticker is a length of iron wire that extends through the chest and rests on the pallet, which it opens by pushing down. [2] See Pallet, Windchest of the positive. This chest is similar, with the sole exception that here the pallet box ( see Pallet box) is located beneath, while in the windchest of the positive it stands atop; otherwise, the pallets, springs and stickers are similar. The forward ends of the fingers have teeth, ccch [fig. 3], encountering the pins on the barrel. Thus, when the barrel turns and the pins around it encounter the teeth on the fingers, they lift them and consequently depress the stickers attached to the other end of the fingers, opening the pallets and admitting wind to the pipes. See the description of the pinned barrel in the article Chimes.

The double feeder, M m [fig. 3],  [3] is pressed down to expel the wind it contains into the pallet box, while the lower feeder is taking in air with the two wire springs, SS. [4] This feeder also has a valve opening outward; it is held closed by wire spring V. It opens only when the air contained in the bellows is compressed to a certain point; after this point, if the valve did not open, the bellows could burst. This would surely occur if the crank is turned rapidly; but with this valve, it is not a danger. [5]

No knowledge is required to play this instrument; the only concern is to turn the crank steadily and at a speed suited to the tunes pinned on the barrel, which are performed as easily in two, three, four, or five voices as in one alone. See Chimes and the illustration of the serinette, Musical instrument making plates [Plate IV].

1. The plate does not mark the bottom board (Translator’s note).

2. The plate shows wire stickers with no wooden part (Translator’s note).

3. In the plate, m marks one of the bellows springs (Translator’s note).

4. In fact, the springs supply pressure to the upper feeder (Translator’s note).

5. The plate does not show the stud that opens this valve when the feeder is full, nor does it show the mechanism for lifting the fingers and sliding the barrel to change tunes. Only pin G (fig. 2) with its (seven) notches ggg suggests this feature (Translator’s note).