The accordion was invented early in the 1800s. It consist of a box with a keyboard on one side, a set of buttons for chords on the other, and a bellows in-between. As the bellows are squeezed or drawn apart, air flows over reeds attached to the keys or buttons currently depressed, thus producing its characteristic sound.
The range on the keyboard side is usually about 3 octaves starting from the F below middle C.