On 2010-09-19, dpb wrote:

There was even a "mini-bubble" of attempted to make them popular in the
US in the 60/70s...(19's, not 18's ).

They've always been popular in laundromats. I recall seeing them
quite often ever since the 50s. In fact, it's only in the last 10-20
yrs I've seen top-loaders dominate in laundromats.

nb