The Gem Roller Organs were made here in Ithaca, New York in a building
which is still standing. The building was the factory of the Ithaca
Calendar Clock Co., and the two companies had overlapping ownership.
H. B. Horton was the mechanical wizard behind both of them.

The Ithaca Autophone Company built the Ithaca Autophone before they did
the roller organs. These are quite rare now, and are sort of an
automated harmonica. You played it by squeezing the bellows by hand to
provide the vacuum and to simultaneously ratchet the cardboard music
strip through. I have one which I acquired about 20-25 years ago locally
at an auction. It was rather badly restored, and does not work
currently.  There are pictures in books of floor-standing models of the
Autophone, but I have never seen any positive proof that they were
actually built.

Tom Dimock¶
Cornell University