Editing Harmonica (section)

===Europe and North America===
Some time before Hohner began manufacturing harmonicas in 1857, he shipped some to relatives who had emigrated to the United States. Its music rapidly became popular, and the country became an enormous market for Hohner's goods. US president [[Abraham Lincoln]] carried a harmonica in his pocket,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hohner.de/ahistory.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070127182041/http://www.hohnerusa.com/ahistory.htm|url-status=dead|title=HOHNER - enjoy music|archivedate=27 January 2007|website=Hohner.de|access-date=18 April 2021}}</ref> and harmonicas provided solace to soldiers on both the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] and [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] sides of the [[American Civil War]]. Frontiersmen [[Wyatt Earp]] and [[Billy the Kid]] played the instrument, and it became a fixture of the American musical landscape.

Harmonicas were heard on a handful of recordings in the early 1900s, generally labeled as a "mouth organ". The first jazz or traditional music recordings of harmonicas were made in the U.S. in the mid-1920s. Recordings known at the time as "race records", intended for the black market of the southern states, included solo recordings by [[DeFord Bailey]] and duo recordings with a guitarist ([[Hammie Nixon]], [[Big Walter Horton|Walter Horton]], or [[Sonny Terry]]). [[Hillbilly]] styles were also recorded, intended for white audiences, by [[Frank Hutchison]], [[Gwen Foster]] and several other musicians. There are also recordings featuring the harmonica in [[jug band]]s, of which the [[Memphis Jug Band]] is the most famous. But the harmonica still represented a toy instrument in those years and was associated with the poor. It is also during those years that musicians started experimenting with new techniques such as tongue-blocking, hand effects and the most important innovation of all, the second position, or cross-harp.

A significant contributor to the expanding popularity of the harmonica was a New York-based radio program called the ''Hohner Harmony Hour'', which taught listeners how to play. Listeners could play along with the program to increase their proficiency. The radio program gained wide popularity after the unveiling of the 1925 White House Christmas tree, which was adorned with fifty harmonicas.

The harmonica's versatility brought it to the attention of classical musicians during the 1930s. American [[Larry Adler]] was one of the first harmonica players to perform major works written for the instrument by the composers [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]], [[Malcolm Arnold]], [[Darius Milhaud]], and [[Arthur Benjamin]].

Harmonicas were scarce in the United States during [[World War II]]. Wood and metal materials for harmonicas were in short supply because of military demand. Furthermore, the primary harmonica manufacturers were based in Germany and Japan, the enemies of the United States and the Allied forces in the war. During this time, Finn Haakon Magnus, a Danish-American factory worker and entrepreneur, developed and perfected the molded plastic harmonica. The plastic harmonica used molded plastic combs and far fewer pieces than traditional metal or wood harmonicas, which made the harmonica more economical to mass-produce and more sanitary. Though the plastic reeds in these harmonicas produced a less distinctive (and, to many ears, inferior) sound than their metallic counterparts, [[Magnus Harmonica Corporation|Magnus harmonicas]] and several imitators soon became commonplace, particularly among children.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YyEDAAAAMBAJ&q=Finn+Haakon+Magnus&pg=RA1-PA244 |title=Popular Science – Google Books |date= September 1951|access-date=2012-07-05}}</ref> The patent for the plastic comb was awarded to William Kratt of Wm. Kratt Company in 1952. During World War II, the [[United States Department of Defense|War Department]] allotted a rationed supply of brass to Kratt's factory so they could continue to produce harmonicas that the [[American Red Cross|Red Cross]] distributed to American troops overseas to boost morale.