(Site History, Policies, Disclaimers, and Permissions)
Who's Who
This web site is meant to be both educational and entertaining, with its
construction and maintenance being a labor of love. It is the result of
combining two formerly separate mechanical music endeavors. In 1997 Terry
Hathaway initiated a web site devoted to historical research and education
relating to large mechanical music machines. This site later added audio
recordings of certain rare and historic automatic musical instruments, so
that it was possible for visitors to actually hear and enjoy the sound of
mechanical music as it once existed during its long ago heyday (A music
licensing agency eventually thought a fee should be paid for the use of each
70- to 90-year old tune fragment, so they were removed despite thousands of
old recordings of similar music being allowed on YouTube).
The Mechanical Music Press web site was inaugurated in 2002, operated by
Art Reblitz and Tim Westman. It was primarily for advertising and showcasing
Art Reblitz’s new book, The Golden Age of Automatic Musical Instruments, a 436-page masterpiece that illustrates many spectacular automatic musical
instruments from the collections of Robert Gilson, James Krughoff, and
Jasper Sanfilippo. Then, in April of 2003, the historical mechanical music
history pages on Terry Hathaway’s Hathaworld web site were transferred to
and merged into the Mechanical Music Press site, the result of which forms
the basis of what you see here today.
The marriage of these two formerly separate and distinct web sites
provided a more powerful and diverse stage for the presentation of
mechanical music technology and its fascinating history, by uniting the
compatible interests and enthusiasm of several people, each one
participating in a complimentary and synergistic way. Terry Hathaway, for
instance, had an expanded platform to present additional historical articles
and research, while Art Reblitz, now had a ready platform to announce and
distribute not only his currently in-print books, but gave him the
motivation to finish other writing projects and easily make them publicly
accessible. Moreover, a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page now
allowed Mr. Reblitz to present commonly submitted questions in a way that
everyone can learn from and enjoy, while, at the same time, relieve him from
having to answer the same type of question over and over again, thus giving
him more time to create new and interesting publications.
With the new combined format in place, numerous historical articles and
instrument profiles were added over the intervening years. Then, in 2009,
the biggest change and/or improvement to the original site layout took
place, when a new Mechanical Music Registry section was added. The purpose
of the new Registry section was not so much to convey mechanical music
history, but to enumerate what still existed. This meant sorting out and
compiling years worth of notes about existing instruments that Art Reblitz
had collected over a lifetime of researching, collecting, and restoring
mechanical music instruments, and then publishing this vast collection of
details in a logical and easy to comprehend and use way. But this original
concept quickly morphed into a more expanded view of the Registry, when it
was realized that it could and should also accommodate other types of
sequential information, such as original de Kleist and Wurlitzer ledger
information that had become available due to the research by Dave Bowers in
preparation for a new book to be jointly written by himself and Art Reblitz, The Reblitz-Bowers Guide to Coin-Operated American Pianos and Orchestrions.
From the first days of the Mechanical Music Press it has been Faith
Westman who has taken care of the day to day customer service aspects
relating to book sales, preparing, and shipping out book orders, so that
Mechanical Music Press customers could enjoy prompt and timely service for
items purchased. Tim Westman was originally responsible for domain name
registration and other related affairs so as to keep the Mechanical Music
Press web site up and running. Terry Hathaway volunteered for the task of
part-time webmaster, keeping the web site up to date, as well as be a contributing
author for additional historical information as time and interest permitted.
In 2010 Tim Westman officially relinquished his duties relative to the
Mechanical Music Press, they then being assumed by Art Reblitz, whereupon
Reblitz Restorations became the sponsor of record for the Mechanical Music
Press web site.
Privacy Policy
No visitor or customer preferential or address information that may be derived from access, mail order book sales, or any other kind of communication is shared, sold, rented, or otherwise made available in any form to any outside person or entity. Any such communication involves non-automated human intervention, and any minimally saved referential information is not made Internet facing.
No customer credit card and/or financial transaction information is known, accessible, or maintained by the Mechanical Music Press. Online sale transactions are handled by Square Up, a credit card processor using their own secure, proprietary transaction connections, and with their own published privacy policy, both of which are independent of the Mechanical Music Press web site.
Submitted Registry technical and historical information regarding mechanical music instruments is meant to be shared as part of publicly published database reports, but the actual database is not maintained on the hosting server or is otherwise made Internet accessible. Moreover, the submitting party’s name, or other personally identifying information, is never shared in a database report—unless permission to do so has specifically been granted.
Any contact information referenced within this site (such as the Links to Resources page) is (1) public information available and/or advertised elsewhere, (2) is specifically authorized by the person or parties concerned, or is (3) shown for historical purposes and is functionally obsolete.
Some minimal anonymous statistical information is known to be routinely collected by the Internet Service Provider hosting this web site, such as browser type, referring URL, site file access information, etc. This information is used to analyze usage trends and provide visitor statistics, which is occasionally accessed to analyze and improve site layout and performance. No "cookies" are set or used by this web site, but it is possible that the hosting service unbeknownst to us may independently choose to set a cookie for reasons entirely unknown to the authors of this web site.
Errors and Omissions
Any and all aspects of this site are subject to revision, correction,
change, and/or removal without prior notice or obligation to any person or
entity. Diligence and a best effort to minimize inaccuracies within this
site is ongoing, but, under no circumstances shall there be any guarantee or
warrantee, either stated, inferred, construed, or otherwise implied,
regarding the authenticity, accuracy, correctness, or usefulness of any
material contained within this site. It is essentially impossible, for
instance, to verify beyond doubt portions of the historical material
presented, due to dimmed memories and the often necessary reliance on
hearsay, old stories and/or anecdotal evidence procured or offered through
various sources. Therefore, anyone using and/or relying upon any information
contained within this site does so at their own risk, and without recourse
or remedy.
To report errors or offer suggestions please contact the webmaster at:
Permissions
Throughout this web site certain text and graphic content, such as logos
and personal photographs, have been made available for use within this site
that are the copyrighted property of various individuals and/or other legal
entities and therefore are restricted for use or reproduction elsewhere.
However, permission is hereby granted to reproduce and use textual material
within this site that is specifically not excerpted from a credited source,
as long as such usage is for "fair and reasonable use," such as brief
quotations embodied in articles and reviews, and a credit line is given.
Please note that the absence of a credit line or copyright statement for a
specific textual or graphic element DOES NOT guarantee or indicate any kind
of implied or actual consent or permission to use, copy, or otherwise
reproduce this restricted copyright content.
If in doubt, please write the webmaster for permissions in regards to
specific content at:
