Accordion, a musical instrument invented in 1829 by Damian, of Vienna. It consists of a small hand-bellows, with a keyboard on one side, containing from five to fifty keys, acting on free metal reeds, so arranged that each sounds two notes, the one in expanding, and the other in contracting the bellows. Its capabilities are extremely limited, and it is in fact little more than a toy.
Accordion
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 1: A to Beaufort, p. 32
Source scan(s): p. 0045