About This Web Site

Hathaway & Associates is a nothing more than a convenient and arbitrary name for a loose collection of mutually independent people who may, from time to time, voluntarily associate under what may seem to be a generic title for a common interest, good and goal. It is not a legal entity, nor does it, of itself, represent any person or entity, or conduct any type of business, commerce or make or cause to be made any binding representations, commitments or contractual arrangements. There is no facility, office, staff, assets or anything else; not even a mailing address. Any and all persons, whether actual, inferred or construed as associated with Hathaway & Associates, this site and/or the author of this site, are to be considered as independent entities and, as such, any arrangement with any one particular individual shall not in any way effect or reflect upon any other individual.

Mission Statement

The purpose of this web site is to display a variety of topics in a visually simple and easy to navigate manner. In line with this thinking, the underlying technical structure of this web site has intentionally been kept as simple as possible, while still meeting certain technical standards of excellence, function, accessibility and platform compatibility. At no time is the visitor more than one menu system deep, which completely eliminates the need for such things as “bread-crumbs” type navigation bars, search boxes and other visual help that lets the visitor know where in the web site they might be. Moreover, this site also follows the voluntary rating system guidelines administered by the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA), and it also adheres to the XHTML 1.0 Strict code standard as administered by and according to the World Wide Web (W3C) Consortium validation service.

General Policy

Web pages or external sites located under the heading of Friends and Associates and/or the Mechanical Music Press (in the Mechanical Music Topics section) are wholly independent entities who are provided space and/or links within this web site solely as a courtesy. There is no commercial affiliation or interaction of any kind, and therefore any mention and/or representation suggested within this web site is not to be construed nor infer any type or kind of legal or financial relationship. This web site and its author is not responsible for the policy, actions or decisions by any of the above referenced or inferred entities.

Privacy Policy

This web site does not attempt to collect or market any visitor information. Any contact information shared or referenced within this site is either (1) public information available elsewhere, or is (2) specifically authorized by the person or entity mentioned.

Some minimal technical information is collected by the Internet Service Provider that hosts this web site, such as browser types and file access information, so as to analyze usage trends and to improve site performance. No "cookies" are used by this site, but it is possible that the hosting service may set a cookie, but, if so, for reasons unknown to the author of this web site.

Errors and Omissions

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, correctness or usefulness of any material contained within this site. Anyone using and/or relying upon any information contained within this site does so at their own risk, and without recourse or remedy.

Evolution of This Site

After many years of intense private and commercial interest in mechanical music, mainly between the years of 1950 to 1980, other endeavors took precedence. Then, in 1997 a resurgence of excitement regarding automatic music machines brought about a renewed desire to write about and further research and share some of the stories about many of my old mechanical music friends. Thus, this web site came into existence as a way of sharing my rekindled enthusiasm for automatic music, and also because of my love of working with computers as a communicative tool for sharing certain aspects of my life with others.

When this site commenced operation in 1997 it was primarily dedicated to research and data collection in regards to the J.D. Philipps Pianella / Wurlitzer PianOrchestra line of self-playing automatic orchestras. The PianOrchestra research project, as it was then called, was originally a strictly academic affair, and, as such, was committed to acquiring historical information and related stories about the companies and the people associated with various automated music machines, adding to what is already known and then sharing that information with historians and other interested parties. Later, certain aspects of the historical work evolved into making available tangible products, such as a limited series of educational custom audio compact disc albums of assorted, outstanding examples of automatic musical instruments, which included coin-in-the-slot pianos, orchestrions, dance organs and fair organs.

Beginning in 1998, a separate section devoted entirely to understanding and applying (what I have arbitrarily termed) the fundamental Mechanics of Consciousness was added, with the intention of suggesting ways the knowledge could be put to use in practical everyday ways. This material was periodically made available, and then, as of November 12, 2001, the "awareness" section was more or less included on a permanent basis.

In April of 2003 this site was basically closed and the mechanical music history pages were transferred over to the Mechanical Music Press web site, where they reside to this day. A simple banner page with a link to the Mechanical Music Press web site was maintained after the closure, and then a few months later this single link was formalized as part of a scrolling menu and the Mechanics of Consciousness material was upgraded and re-instated on a temporary basis. Then in 2005 the "awareness" section was withdrawn again, mainly because of its esoteric nature, which seemed to make it quite difficult for the casual reader to make sense of it and usefully comprehend. But, then, it was reinstated in April of 2006 after several suggestions that I once again make it available, but on a permanent basis.

In January, of 2007, a complimentary web section was added for the Hathaway Ranch Museum, which is a non-profit organization with limited funds.

In December, of 2009, the awareness oriented material was finally de-linked (once again) mainly because no one "out there" seemed interested in reading it or otherwise making any use of it. Or, at least, if somebody was reading it, there was never any feedback to suggest any fervor or interest in the subject. However, the unlinked awareness files remained intact on the server and a friend who expressed some interest was given a "special link" that allowed continued access, after which no more thought was given to the matter. Then, at the beginning of March, 2010, a conversation with this friend led into an unexpected discussion of how useful the awareness material had been for her and that she had some friends with whom she would like to share it. And, so, the Mechanics of Consciousness material was once again reinstated on a more or less "permanent" basis.

Contact Information

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