Granted in 1886 to Carl Essbach, this patent covers another means of switching between two sets of reeds. Rather than a horizontal slider, the entire mouthpiece shifts vertically to select either the upper or lower reedplate:
This means of operation is very similar to Vern Smith's Hands Free Chromatic.
Essbach ran a very successful harmonica company from the early 1870s to the early 1920s, when he was bought out by Seydel.
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