Recently I watched a "busker" street musician in Cambridge (Boston)
perform on his home-made armonica, made from random drinking glasses
secured to a wooden board by a simple but secure arrangement of wooden
blocks and cords.  He was pretty good at negotiating its three chromatic
octaves.  Anyone with a lot of patience could sift through trash cans and
garage sales to collect enough glassware (good crystal seems not to be
needed), like this busker did.

Years ago a nice "serious" version was built for Bruno Hoffman, who had
at least one recording on the VOX label; I have this record.

Ben Franklin's roto-shaft version, like many other "improvements" to
musical instruments, is easier to play but probably gives less expressive
control to the player.

I have read of attempts to keyboard-ize Franklin's machine, but finding
a material that substituted well for the human fingertip (and keeping it
just moist enough) turned out to be impossible.

Wonder if anyone tried fitting a barrel or roll-player to one?

Mike Knudsen