Patent ID: 7122729

Claim:
A harmonica comprising: a comb having a central wall with upper and lower wall surfaces, a plurality of upper cell walls which extend upwardly from said upper wall surface and which are displaced from one another in a longitudinal direction so as to define a plurality of first upper cells and a plurality of second upper cells, said first upper cells and said second upper cells being arranged alternately in the longitudinal direction, and a plurality of lower cell walls which extend downwardly from said lower wall surface and which are displaced from one another in the longitudinal direction so as to define a plurality of first lower cells and a plurality of second lower cells, said first lower cells and said second lower cells being arranged alternately in the longitudinal direction, said first and second upper cells being registered with said first and second lower cells, respectively, two adjacent ones of said first upper cells and said second upper cells and two corresponding ones of said first lower cells and second lower cells being formed as a cell set; a plurality of mouthpieces displaced from one another in the longitudinal direction, each of said mouthpieces being disposed upstream or downstream of a corresponding one of said cell sets in a first transverse direction relative to the longitudinal direction in terms of flow of blown air or drawn air, and being registered with the corresponding one of said cell sets; a reed vibrating member which has a plurality of air passageways, each of which is disposed downstream or upstream of and is registered with a corresponding one of said cell sets in a second transverse direction relative to the longitudinal and first transverse directions, and a plurality of reeds disposed to be vibratile in said air passageways, respectively, such that when an air flow is introduced through said first upper and lower cells or said second upper and lower cells in a corresponding one of said cell sets into a corresponding one of said air passageways to thereby vibrate a corresponding one of said reeds, a note of either one of diatonic and chromatic scales is given out; and an elongated valve member which extends in the longitudinal direction, which is disposed in said comb, and which is shiftable relative to said comb in the longitudinal direction between diatonic and chromatic positions, said elongated valve member including a plurality of valve units which are displaced from one another in the longitudinal direction, and which are interposed between said mouthpieces and said cell sets, such that, in the diatonic position, each of said valve units blocks the air flow from a respective one of said mouthpieces into said second upper and lower cells of a corresponding one of said cell sets, and such that, in the chromatic position, each of said valve units blocks the air flow from the respective one of said mouthpieces into said first upper and lower cells of the corresponding one of said cell sets.