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4-note xylophone with mallet

Dinner Chimes

A xylophone with a purpose.

This artifact was featured on our monthly social media series, "Museum Mystery Mondays."

These are dinner chimes. They were used by railroad porters (employees) walking through the coaches to gently summon passengers to dinner. The J.C. Deagan Company of Chicago, IL, manufactured these four-tone dinner chimes in the 1930s. They have four keys: G, C, E, and G.

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