With the last agitator design, it really made no difference whether you put the detergent down the barrel or around it because it fell onto the top of the skirt, but in the early lint filter agitator washers and even into the first turquoise agitators, the skirt on the underside of the agitator held the detergent inside it until the agitation started. I always thorugh it was strange in the instructions for the AMP models that the detergent was to be sprinkled on TOP of the load where it could cause something called "detergent burn" when in contact with damp fabrics before it dissolved. It seems like it would have been better to put it at the bottom of the basket to get it dissolved quicker.
The ad mentions that Maytags were sold in Canada. Do Canadian washer boys remember them being very popular there? I guess they were only made in Newton and shipped up there.
Which is a better term for AW members: washer boys or agitators, as in "He's a fellow agitator"? I like the male connotation of the term as well as the varied designs of agitators.