Today at an antique show I picked up yet another form of the
Play-A-Sax or Rolmonica type of roll-playing, mouth-blown reed organ.
It's called the "Fireside Player" with no other manufacturer's marks
other than "Patent No. 1813337, Other Pats. Pending."

It's of green tinplate and shaped like a carpet sweeper, much like the
Rolmonica, except that the mouthpiece is in the rear.  It blows and
draws directly into the back of the hidden harmonica.  The hinged cover
that shuts over the roll and take-up spool and tracker bar is just
there for protection, and to give you a handhold.  (In the Rolmonica
the cover forms a pressurized chamber, if I read the photo in Bowers'
Encyclopedia right.)

The rolls are all marked "QRS PlayASax" by the "QRS-DeVry Corp."
Apparently QRS was allied with that company at the time.  QRS was wed
at one time or another to a radio company and a few others I dimly
recall.

What I like best about this instrument, besides coming with seven rolls
for under $90, is that it contains no self-destructive materials like
plastic, rubber, or pot metal, and so still plays perfectly.  The
tracker bar cylinder that surrounds the harmonica is solid brass,
screwed to the tinplate case.  The take-up spool is wooden and like
new.

This instrument plays either sucking or blowing, with reeds for both
directions tuned to the same pitch.  Sucking works better since blowing
tends to lift the paper off the tracker, unless you're careful not to
blow too hard.  Do the other instruments in this family also support
breathing both in and out?  It would seem necessary, since the roll
arrangements don't leave any breathing room!

Some of the roll arrangements are pretty jazzy, with lots of extra
notes and chromatics.  You can tell that QRS was involved, borrowing
some tricks from their great piano roll arrangers.  For a 16-note
scale, these machines have quite a few sharps and flats -- at least F#,
Bb, and C#.  The reeds speak surprisingly fast and crisply, especially
for a paper-as-valve machine.  The rolls I have, all "QRS PlayASax",
are

P101  Annie Laurie
P113  Flow Gently Sweet Afton
P120  [In] The Good Old Summertime
P130  Love's Old Sweet Song (Just a Song at Twilight?)
P185  Am I Blue?  (a *terrific* chromatic arrangement!)
P216  Good Night [Irene?]
P229  [Maine] Stein Song (well, this IS Maine!)

I'd guess that all but 229 and 185 came free with the instrument (no
copyrights), and the others were bought separately, at 15 cents apiece.

Mike Knudsen