Re: [Harp-L] Magnus harmonica

[David Michelsen <dmharpman@xxxxxxxxx>]

 My understanding of the harmonica situation in WWII was that 
production continued, all be it, at a reduced rate as the instrument was 
deemed good for the moral of the troops.
Indeed it was about this time that the star of David was taken off the 
cover-plates of the Hohner chromatic.
There is a story Larry Adler tells of flying to Hohner trossengen 
shortly after the end of the war to pick up some chromatic harmonicas. 
Which supports the idea of continued production as opposed to melting 
them all down. How soon after the end of the war I can't say but I think 
the story is told in his biography.
In WWI the UK had some native harmonica production, they were tremlo's 
all named after birds, "The Bluebird", "The Skylark".

I've often wondered what happened to the machine plant, wondering if 
there is still an unused harmonica factory gathering dust in a 
dilapidated factory somewhere in the Midlands just waiting to come back 
to life again. "perchance to dream"
 As far as I can tell the war office thought that the harmonica was 
good for moral. Which  we know  to be true, blowing some music will make 
anyone feel better.
The idea of an all plastic harp is intriguing, can you post a sound file?
With modern polymers there is no telling what could be done, the vest 
pocket Bass harp maybe?, After all the wing of a Bee is small but Bass 
in pitch.
Yours still dreaming
 - David


On 28/03/2011 19:48, David Payne wrote:
> The thing Magnus is probably best known for is the all-plastic harmonica. He
> developed this during World War II in response to a world-wide shortage of
> harmonica brass, because the Germans and Americans needed all the brass they
> could get to make cartridges to shoot at each other. I saw once where Germany
> used 8 billion rounds of 8mm shells, that doesn't count all the brass used in
> artillery shells, 9mm rounds for pistols, etc. and the United States probably
> shot as many or more 30.06 shells. That's a lot of brass and I woud suspect most
> of the prewar harps were melted down in the U.S. and Germany, let alone reserve
> precious brass for making new harmonicas (although Kratt did get a little brass
> to make harps for the military). Unable to get brass, Magnus designed the all
> plastic harmonica. Plastic covers, plastic reeds, plastic reedplates, etc.
>
> I don't know that he actually was able to pull this off during the war, I've
> only found evidence these were selling after, but these plastic harmonicas were
> a nice, cheap  intro for the baby boomer kids. I believe Phil Caltabellotta got
> started on one of those.
>
> I've got one. You can play some nice blues on it, but it's really hard. Not very
> responsive.
>
> Here is some court document I came across a while back, not something I've seen
> reposted anywhere. It's a summary of Mr. and Mrs. Finn Magnus vs. the IRS.
>
> http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/259/259.F2d.893.12470_1.html
>
> Dave
> www.elkriverharmonicas.com

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