The Phonoharp Company (1892–1928) was an American manufacturer of musical instruments based in Boston, Massachusetts. Among the instruments the company was known for was the

autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of ...

, whose design they acquired from

Alfred Dolge Alfred Dolge (December 22, 1848 – January 5, 1922) was a German-born industrialist, inventor, and author of two books. Originally an importer and manufacturer of piano materials he later founded his own factory, manufacturing felt products at ...

in 1910; they later merged with Oscar Schmidt (who would become the primary American producers of autoharps) in 1926. The company was also known for producing other instruments, namely the guitar zither,

mandolin zither The guitar zither (also chord zither, fretless zither, mandolin zither or harp zither) is a musical instrument consisting of a sound-box with two sets of unstopped strings. One set of strings is tuned to the diatonic, chromatic, or partially ...

, celestaphone, and the

ukelin The ukelin is a bowed psaltery with zither strings made popular in the 1920s. It is meant to be a combination of the violin and the Hawaiian ukulele. It lost popularity prior to the 1970s because the instrument was difficult to play and often ret ...

. Among its employees who would go on to their own success was

Henry Charles Marx Henry Charles Marx (1875–1947) was the American inventor of numerous musical instruments, most notably the marxophone The Marxophone is a fretless zither played via a system of metal hammers. It features two octaves of double melody strings ...

, inventor of the

Marxophone The Marxophone is a fretless zither played via a system of metal hammers. It features two octaves of double melody strings in the key of C major ( middle C to C''), and four sets of chord strings (C major, G major, F major, and D7). Sounding s ...

References

{{reflist Musical instrument manufacturing companies based in Boston Defunct companies based in Massachusetts Manufacturing companies based in Massachusetts Manufacturing companies established in 1892 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1928 1892 establishments in Massachusetts 1926 disestablishments in Massachusetts