I am restoring a 13-5/8" Symphonion upright disk box.  It looks like
the model 37H on page 223 (bottom left) of Bower's Encyclopedia.  It
stood unused in a restaurant for decades and several people have tried
to fix it over the years.  In various stages they removed and replaced
the internal 'furniture'.

The last person to work on it told me that he had replaced the old
spring with a new clock spring but it still wouldn't run with a disk
in place.  Well, I've yet to see a clock spring that would run a music
box so that seemed a bit odd.  But I only had the mechanism at that
point so I did some detective work.  I could see the boss in the frame
where the spring barrel could go but there were no holes for the shaft.
I then asked him to bring over the original 'spring'.

Then it dawned on me: this was a weight driven box and the "spring'
they had replaced was, in fact, the metal band from which the weight
hangs.  I finally got him to bring over the cabinet.  Sure enough,
there was a heavy iron weight in the bottom, which they had taken as
a precaution against the cabinet tipping over.  To tell the truth,
I think they still don't believe me that there is no spring in the box.

So, here's my problem.  The internal wooden parts have been removed and
replaced more than once.  The back door was inverted because the hinge
screws came loose.  The locks were removed.  The bottom mount for the
mechanism was cut out by sawing the four end dowels.  Internal panels
were removed and are loose in the bottom of the case.  They don't look
original and there seems to be an large, extra piece with screws all
around the edge.

I need someone who has a similar box who can tell or show me how the
internal wooden parts are arranged.  For instance, I suspect that there
is some sort of disk storage but I can't find any trace of one.  If you
have a Symphonion box of this type I'd really appreciate it if you
would contact me at the above e-mail address (sans '.geentrope').  Thanks
for your help.

Craig Smith