The gravity-powered xylophones of Charles and Ray Eames

Craft & Design Music
eames musical tower ball falling (Custom).jpg
eames musical tower height (Custom).jpg
eames musical tower ball loading (Custom).jpg
eames musical tower piston loading (Custom).jpg
eames musical tower ball return (Custom).jpg

These “musical towers” are featured in the short film 901: After 45 Years of Working by Eames Demetrios. 901 documents the dismantling of the office of famous U.S. designers Charles and Ray Eames in 1988 following Ray’s death. The Eames office was a kind of maker fantasy-land, with finished and unfinished projects scattered about, meticulously organized tools and supplies, and wonderful little gewgaws in every nook and cranny.

The first few minutes of the film feature a delightful bubbling xylophone soundtrack that is eventually revealed to be coming from these prototype toys designed by the Eameses themselves, and installed in their office for their own amusement.

The towers are wooden boxes six inches square and about 15′ tall, fronted with acrylic, and having sides slotted to accept metal xylophone keys which fit loosely enough to allow free vibration and easy rearrangement. The slots for the keys are angled toward one another, slightly, so that the surfaces of the keys present a series of alternately-sloped platforms for a small hard plastic ball which, when dropped from the top of the tower, will plunk its way slowly down to the bottom, playing a little tune as it goes. The balls are injected using a manual pneumatic piston which shoots them up a pipe to the top of the tower.

There does not seem to be any video of the towers in operation available online, but 901: After 45 Years of Working is available on the first disc of The Films of Charles and Ray Eames, which also includes final and rough draft versions of the classic Powers of Ten. Highly recommended.

8 thoughts on “The gravity-powered xylophones of Charles and Ray Eames

  1. Simon Every says:

    Really neat – Saw something similar to this recently here http://www.dominicwilcox.com/bin.html

  2. Silverman says:

    Sean, it’s too bad you’re not at UT anymore because we need to get lunch. My wife got me the Films box set and this was one of my favorites. Maybe fair use permits us to post a few seconds of the film for educational purposes. It makes an excellent counterpoint to the noise-based music machines we’re accustomed to seeing here. When I grow up, I want to build a xylophone like that, but maybe I’ll make the keys myself instead of dismantling a hundred toy xylophones.

  3. DebbieM says:

    I have been using the above mentioned Eames video for the Powers of 10 part but have also showed my “above average” 3rd-5th grade students the 901 part.  They were fascinated with the gravity music boxes.  We are considering trying to make one (?) (can you ever make only ONE?) – any suggestions?  Such as where to find the xylophone keys or how to put together the pneumatics to get the marbles to the top?  Of course, I also have a small group of rebels who want to make a bicycle generator…I have the bicycle…Help?

  4. DebbieM says:

    I have been using the above mentioned Eames video for the Powers of 10 part but have also showed my “above average” 3rd-5th grade students the 901 part.  They were fascinated with the gravity music boxes.  We are considering trying to make one (?) (can you ever make only ONE?) – any suggestions?  Such as where to find the xylophone keys or how to put together the pneumatics to get the marbles to the top?  Of course, I also have a small group of rebels who want to make a bicycle generator…I have the bicycle…Help?

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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