The instrument was designed by Thomas Machell of Glasgow in the 1860s, at the same time as Victor Mustel's organologically synonymous typophone,[1] and manufactured by the firm of Thomas Machell & Sons during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
[clarification needed] Some of the late models use an action suspended on a system of leaf springs, which is considerably quieter than that illustrated.
However, the volume produced is extremely limited, and the dulcitone's part is frequently substituted by a glockenspiel.
[2] Two pieces scored for the dulcitone are Vincent d'Indy's Song of the Bells (1888) and Percy Grainger's "The Power of Rome and the Christian Heart" (1943).
Surviving examples exist as far afield as New Zealand, where one is preserved in the Whittaker's Musical Museum.