Metered fill in solid tub machines
Toggle, there were a couple of ways of doing this. In the late 60s Imperial and Custom Imperial washers, there was an upside down Y shaped path for the fill water. The largest amount went into the tub and a smaller amount went down to a polyethelene container at the base of the washer. That had a pressure switch and was how they were able to give less than full fills without a timed fill. The timed fill was better IMHO if for nothing else than the overflow rinse was shortened because the washer was not pumping out water during agitation. It could only use a certain amount of water for the overflow so that the water stayed at a low enough level in the outer tub to allow for handling the water that was spun out in the drain. Norge used a similar system in some of their solid tub machines. I remember reading in the operating instructions for one deluxe meter-fill model that if the washer did not fill whe the machine was started, it was because the collector basin signaled that the washer was filled, so the remedy was to set it for spin to drain the little collector. A little scolding note said that if the spin was ever interrupted, like to remove something that should not be spun, you were to be sure to let the washer complete the full spin portion of the cycle.
GE solid tub FilterFlo machines of course filled the tub to overflowing which signaled the pressure switch in the sump of the outer tub to shut off the water. But GE had something else for getting rid of heavier than water soil that complicated the small load water level; a hole under the Activator. All was fine with a full fill, but when a small load was washed and the water level controlled by the water saver switch that was pressed when the required amount of water was in the tub, there was a specific instruction that the water level had to be at least up to the small load line on the Activator. It was a bit more than half a tub and that was because during the wash period, water was slowly draining out of the tub through the sediment hole and was not being replaced by the FilterFlo because there was no water overflowing into the outer tub. The washer made a loud gurgling and sucking noise during activation. If you did not fill the tub with the minimum amount of water, you could end up with an almost empty tub by the end of the wash or at least until water minerals and stuff clogged the hole. In today's POD of the SQ, you can see a tube coming up the side of the tub from the bottom of the tub. That was the sediment ejector tube and the spinning tub forced water out of the tube, maybe helped a bit by the water moving over the tip of the tube to cause a bit of siphoning using the vernturi principle (which is also how a Frigidaire washer could drain the Filtrator's water pan when the washer drained if the set up was just right) and it sucked out the sand and stuff that found its way under the agitator. Socks did not take that route to the outer tub to clog the pump. They would just go over the top if conditions were right, sorta like salmon.