This is another interesting chromatic with an original slide mechanism. F.A. Rauner must have produced this unusual slide chromatic after 1944. The DRWZ 261424 (“Deutsches-Reichs-Waren-Zeichen” -> basically the registration to offer a basic copyright protection for design or function ). The DRWZ initials were used in Germany after 1944. Before that, D.R.G.M. -> Deutsches Reichsgebrauchsmuster were the official initials for copy rights.

In 1937 Böhm applied for patent #DE703 133. It was granted in 1941. The idea was to use a slider to cover one set of reeds instead of shifting an entire reed plate as described in the earlier patent #DE470354 by Otto Hermann Böhm and applied in earlier Böhm models.
The newly patented idea was then realized in several new Böhm chromatic models.
The Blue Bird Chromatic Vamper was a single tone chromatic harmonica. As you can see in the below manual the notes were in a particular order.

The Tremolo Chromatic, also manufactured by Böhm, followed the same principle of covering one set of reeds.

This is a very unique and interesting instrument. It has a range of one octave. The notes are not sorted in chromatic order.  The slider serves to move to the next adjacent note which is usually a half step higher (the exception is the last channel A->E) .
It was most likely manufactured by Seydel. Unfortunately, the harmonica came without a box and there is no manufacturer name anywhere on the covers. One thing that points me to Seydel is the slide button. Comparing it to a Seydel/Bandmaster chromatic harmonica button it looks identical. Jugging by the lettering on the covers, my best guess it that it was produced in the late 1930s.

Each channel consists of two blow reeds. This is a contrast to a “regular” chromatic harmonica which comes with blow and draw notes .
Each channel contains two reeds, tuned exactly one octave apart. This concept is similar to a standard Bass harmonica which also comes with two blow notes (one octave apart) per channel .

A similar concept was picked up years later by Suzuki when they came out with their own S-48B Bass Chromatic.

The Chromorgan is a very interesting harmonica not in terms of any new slider invention but rather for its unique boomerang shape.

Boomerang harmonicas were exclusively sold to the Australian market. Frank Albert, the owner of the largest music store in Sydney, commissioned those harmonicas from Seydel in Germany and sold them under the synonym “Albert’s System”. If you ever have a chance to buy the book “Boomerangs and Crackajacks” by Ray Grieve, you will get a great overview of the Australian harmonica history. There is also a blog by Harmonicariffraff showing a list of all harmonicas ever available in Australia.

Update: just recently I got contacted by Phil Sheppard (Shep), author of the wonderful blog “Harmonica Riff Raff“ in regards to a Boomerang harmonica advertisement he found in a Boomerang Songster book.
The complete article was posted here. In that advertisement the slider button of the instrument looked completely different to the standard buttons.

When I visited the Museum of music and winter sports in Klingenthal this year I noticed a Booomerang chromatic with exactly that “odd” looking button.

This reminded me in some ways of the button used for the Böhm Chromatic with movable reedplate.

Thorens a Swiss manufacturer of high-end audio equipment used to manufacture harmonicas between 1914-1921 and 1938-1952.

One of the three chromatic harmonicas they manufactured caught my attention. Similar to the Koch chromatic, one of their 10 hole chromatics came with an external compression spring.

My assumption is that the 10-hole chromatic with compression spring was the first of the three chromatics Thorens brought to market. I would date it back to the late 1930s.

10-hole Thorens chromatic harmonica with enameled covers and
external compression spring

In 1930 Hohner presented a new “Chromonica”. It included an internal spring which was another leap in harmonica engineering.

The patent #DE490 654 was submitted in 1927 and granted to Hohner in 1930.

Additionally, Hohner came out with a three and in 1936 a four octave version of the Chromonica.

Hohner added also a separate Larry Adler line (junior 10 hole and 12 hole version) with enamel cover plates. Later on, a four octave model was added.

The “Chromonica” design has been copied by various other harmonica manufacturers.
Below a selection of some of the copies:

The Böhm harmonica company founded in 1850 and located in Klingenthal/Germany was one of the major harmonica manufactures in the first half of the twenties century.

The company produced quite an amount of innovative harmonicas. One innovation is described in the patent #DE470354 by Otto Hermann Böhm granted in 1929.

Pat Missin has a detailed technical explanation including pictures showing how this invention works. He also mentions that a similar idea was already patented (# US443607A) in 1890 by John Oefinger and Benjamin F. Butler of Greenfield, Massachusetts.

This is the last chromatic harmonica the Koch company produced before they were bought by Hohner at the end of 1928.

I first saw this harmonica in the 1927 Koch catalogue:

What is special about this harmonica is the mouthpiece and slider.
The mouthpiece was made out of aluminum and had round holes. All other chromatic harmonicas at that time had brass mouthpieces with square holes. This mouthpiece was also thicker and connects without gaps to the cover plates. Modern chromatic harmonicas like the Hohner “Meisterklasse” and the Suzuki chromatics use a similar mouthpiece shape. Then there was the slider mechanism using an internal compression spring. It was very unique for that time. After buying Koch Hohner never used that slider innovation in their own chromatic harmonicas (only in some prototypes) until 1990 when the CX12 came out. As you can see, the slider uses a compression and not an internal torsion spring which was invented by Hohner in 1930 (more to that in my upcoming post) and still used in most of today’s chromatic harmonicas.

Update: apparently, Koch came also out with another version of the instrument called “Artist-Concert”.
It is not a chromatic harmonica. By pressing the button you can switch from C-Major to A-minor (harmonic minor).

As I wrote in one of my previous posts, until about 1930 most of the chromatic harmonicas at that time used an external spring for slider action. It was invented by Hohner in 1910. There were few exceptions. One exception was the horn chromatic by Koch from about 1926.

The text in the catalogue states: “this new style Mouth Organ has a brass horn which amplifies the volume. By turning the sounding horn forward or backward, a real chromatic scale is produced.”

As described above, twisting the bell of the horn moves the key either to “C” or “C#”. The comb and reed plate are under the mouthpiece. The harmonica has 10 holes and is Richter tuned.

It seems the horn chromatic harmonica was just a short lived experiment. The 1927 Koch catalogue did not advertise it anymore. This was just around one years after it was first produced.

Note:
I was I able to restore an old horn chromatic owned by Harland Crain that was missing the mouthpiece and logo.

 

A new custom made wood mouth piece was created, painted in the original color and attached to the body.

 

 

 

To re-create the logo, brass sheet metal adding a black coat was used. The original logo was re-trace with the help of design software. The black paint was lasered off where needed and the logo cut out.

 

 

The Böhm Blue Bird Improved Chromatic is a very interesting instrument. The DRGM 978090 (Deutsches Reichsgebrauchsmuster -> basically the registration to offer a basic copyright protection for design or function ) was registered in 1922.

Böhm came up with a different slider mechanism. The slider will only cover one blow and draw hole and is attached to one spring situated to the top right part of the harmonica. The slider button will be pushed horizontally towards the harmonica.

Some time ago, I saw a chromatic harmonica “Chromonette” (Jos Fischer) with a similar slider mechanism at the Museum of music and winter sports in Klingenthal.