About five years ago I visited the House "on the rocks" which I found
very disappointing.  I would have to agree with Art that most of what
is there is either barely, if not completely, non-functional or hacked
up to death.  There are certainly many "interesting" displays but I was
deeply saddened to find so many rare mechanical instruments crying for
help and a means for escape in the night.

Among the non-functional but potentially rebuildable items I can
recall was a double Mills, a Hupfeld Phonolist-Violina with broken
and dangling bow strings pathetically hanging down, several small
coin pianos such as a Seeburg L, a few small band organs, a Tangley
calliope, and a small variety of non-functioning pinned cylinder pianos
with spring motors.

The "fake" mechanical music machines varied from humorous to the
ridiculous.  I will have to admit that there was a lot of creativity
involving pneumatics.  Among others things were a lot of human figures
with moving arms, shifting eyes and so-on.

One of the saddest displays were hundreds and hundreds of wooden
carousel horses.  One can only imagine how many beautiful carousels
where butchered to assemble these displays.

In a separate guided tour being offered I was able to see a workshop
where they "worked" on these instruments.  I didn't see much actual
work going on but did see a lot of mixed up pieces of instruments
scattered about.  On a shelf was a huge box of the pneumatic "eyeball"
units for the human figures which consisted of small double pneumatics
connected by a wire to two painted ping-pong balls!  I asked someone in
the shop a few technical and historical questions but could get no
logical answers.

I suppose that it is worth a visit if you find yourself in the area but
don't expect to find a mechanical music museum or you will be
disappointed.  If nothing else I found it to be a good example of how
not to assemble a collection.

Rob Goodale, RPT