Re: Gem Roller Organ
By Tom Dimock
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 |
(Message sent Thu 23 Jan 1997, 19:52:49 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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