I found out that in 1937, Bendix introduced the first automatic washer, but it doesn't say if it was a front or top loader. Help!
When I was a child in the late forties/early fifties I had never heard of front loaders. All the ones I know about in the UK were top loaders. So if Bendix's first was a front loader I don't think the design caught on generally for a long time. Early ones just washed, and you had a hand operated wringer fixed to the top. Then, modern miracle, there were power operated wringers - you fed the clothes through the rollers and the water ran down back into the machine. We had our first front loader in 1956, but I think they had been around for a while before that.
I searched Bendix automatic washer 1937 and the first site on the list says it was a front-loader.
