![]() Regina shipped 100,000 music boxes between 18, with sales topping out over $2 million a year. For a machine that cost $500, this was a relatively novel idea. Regina boxes were seen as strong profit drivers partially because they created a steady revenue stream, as consumers would buy new discs to play on boxes they had already purchased. In 1897, Brachhausen patented an automatic disc changer, and Regina established a service for installing and maintaining their coin-operated music boxes. He also lured one of Symphonion's arrangers, Octave Felicien Chaillet, to America, where he composed and arranged thousands of discs for Regina. Regina established a nationwide distribution network by offering a 50% wholesale price to department stores and other retailers. ![]() In a few years, Regina was manufacturing their products entirely in America, as Brachhausen accumulated patents. After a year of immediate success, Brachhausen purchased a 25,000-square foot building at 54 Cherry Street in Rahway. Gradually, the movements were imported and assembled into American-made boxes. Initially, Regina imported their boxes from Polyphon, selling 11 and 15.5-inch models. After sailing to America in September 1892, he leased some space in Jersey City, and with financing from Knauth, Nachod & Kuhne in Leipzig, Brachhausen set up shop in partnership with Riessner and Johannas J. Three years later, at the age of 35, Brachhausen expanded his enterprise to America by establishing the Regina Music Box Company. ![]() In 1889, Gustave Brachhausen, the foreman of the Symphonion music box company based in Leipzig, created the polyphon Musikwerke in partnership with a Symphonion engineer Paul Riessner. ![]()
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