The moo box is a

toy A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pet ...

or a

souvenir A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...

. When turned upside down, it produces a noise that resembles the

mooing Certain words in the English language represent animal sounds: the noises and speech production, vocalizations of particular animals, especially noises used by animal communication, animals for communication. The words can be used as verbs or int ...

of a

cow Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

. The toy can be configured to create other

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

sounds such as the

meowing A meow or miaow is a cat vocalization. ''Meows'' may have diverse tones and are sometimes chattered, murmured or whispered. Adult cats rarely meow to each other, so an adult cat meowing to human beings is probably a post-domestication extens ...

of a

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

, the sound of a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

, or the bleat of a

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

Construction

The moo box consists of a block and a bellows. The bellows is sealed to the bottom of the box and to the block. The block is heavy and perforated, and used to actuate the bellows, producing the sound. When the box is inverted, the block falls away from the bottom, filling the bellows with air. When the box is turned right side up, the air is expelled through a vibrating blade (which makes it a free reed instrument) producing the sound. After passing the blade, the air passes through a duct of variable length, which determines the pitch of the sound. Open Moo Box

Moatti test

The toy can be used to perform the Moatti test, conceived by doctor Lucien Moatti. It uses four boxes calibrated to reach sixty

decibel The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose levels differ by one decibel have a po ...

s at two metres. The test can be used to screen the hearing of children aged from six to 24 months. The tester knocks down the boxes out of sight of the child. If the child hears the sound, they will turn their head in the direction of the sound. Each box tests different frequencies.

Notable appearances in pop culture

* A moo box was used in the

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' track "B-boys Makin' With The Freak Freak", from their 1994 album ''

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''. * Michael Scott confuses a

radon Radon is a chemical element with the symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colourless, odourless, tasteless noble gas. It occurs naturally in minute quantities as an intermediate step in the normal radioactive decay chains through ...

detector for a moo box in the cold open of ''

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'' episode, "

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". * In the French film '' Les Couloirs du temps : Les Visiteurs II'' (1998), a man from the Modern Day is accidentally transported to the

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and brought with him souvenirs from the future. While being interrogated by villagers, one of them grabs a moo box and believe the toy to be a work of witchcraft to which they have him tied to a steak to be burned. * The Kube brothers make moo boxes in the post-apocalyptic French film ''

Delicatessen Traditionally, a delicatessen or deli is a retail establishment that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessen originated in Germany (original: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the m ...

'' (1991), directed by

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and

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. * In the

THX THX Ltd. is an American company that develops the eponymous high fidelity audio/visual reproduction standards for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, gaming consoles, car audio systems, and video games. Founded ...

Tex 2: Moo Can trailer, a robot mascot named Tex of the American audio company THX uses a moo can to perform a

Deep Note Waveform of the Deep Note The Deep Note is the sound trademark of THX Ltd., being a distinctive synthesized crescendo that glissandos from a relatively narrow frequency spread (about 200–400 Hz) to a broader frequency spread (of about ...

mooed by cows. This trailer first premiered with the original theatrical release of

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in November 1997. It was seen on ''

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...

'' and ''

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

'' DVDs (1997-2005). *In

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, the secretary for the school nurse is seen using the toy in the controversial episode "Dark Harvest". * Moo Can was seen in the ''

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'' trailer, where two minions are playing with a toy.

References

Mechanical toys Toy instruments and noisemakers {{toy-stub

Construction

Moatti test

Notable appearances in pop culture

See also

References