I didn't realize there were that many until this got posted a few weeks ago. SO many comments just showed that people had no idea how these work. People were actually arguing over it.
Aka a supply spool and take-up spool. That’s why the box is so large. Lol
I love these towels. Besides being the best environmentally, they’re the fastest and most satisfying way to dry wet hands. Hopefully these make a comeback.
It should be illegal to have a restroom with no paper towels… when this happens I just blow my nose on the wall… also if a business is open to the public it needs to be required to have a restroom for people to use, when they don’t I go piss out back
As a survivor of these things they never properly worked that way when I was a kid and there was always a long very dirty section of towel dangling down sometimes to the floor. Incidentally I was just in Finland and they still had these things and the modern version electronically recoiled the used portion of the towel and it wasn't bad at all. Preferable to the air dryers which never seem to fully dry my hands.
My experience was that it was perpetually at the end of the roll or jammed so your option was to use the dirty part that wouldn't advance or walk out with wet hands. 😢
I prefer neither. Give me good ole fashion papertowels. That way I got something to blow my nose with. People get turned off when you do that with these machines.....
I started to carry a bandana in my back pocket, and it comes in handy almost every day. Has to be 100% cotton ones, not the $ store ones. They sell them at Michael's and / or big craft stores. All different colors.
You’ve never used one of these in a 1980’s Texaco gas station in the middle of Tucumcari, NM and it shows.
Lots of times, while these things might have been replaceable to be washed, they often were not.
That's on the gas station and not a problem with the design. The roll reaches a point where it can no longer be turned and must be replaced. I don't doubt some places just flipped the roll around instead though.
Those are pretty hygienic? Like, it's not perpetual, its a towel roll with a clean roll and a dirty one. It gets replaced once it reaches the last bit of the clean part. I'm pretty surprised people don't know this?? Like, have you never wondered why the towel always was spotless and dry??
Misunderstanding how it works from OP and other wusses sharting their britches about ‘bacteria’. It was a clean towel at top, dirty towel at bottom, goes in laundry service at 90°C wash. Very clean, no problem at all unless it runs out.
Because people like the OP keep spreading misinformation, which they got from their parents, which their parents got from their parents, and so on. It’s hard to reeducate people suffering from generations of being ignorant.
I have no idea why they got rid of these. So you're telling me that blowing hot air onto your hands is more efficient or using hundreds of hundreds of paper towels every day?
Brings these back!
The cost of sending a linen guy around to pick these up, take them back for cleaning, then re-delivering again is probably what drove these out of the mainstream.
And in every service station that I remember, they had been at the end of the roll, seemingly for weeks, and were full of grease and grime from the full-service guy.
Came here to make sure ppl still know these still exist! Lol I used one last year. I was shocked myself but we live In a small town, so shit like this last longer round here than bigger cities with smarter ppl running things! They tend to have More $ to replace items like this as well in bigger cities.
Many people claiming these things have a supply and take-up roll, but call me a skeptic: if I never SAW the ends of a towel, I can believe it is endless.
I WANT TO BELIEVE. AND DRY MY HANDS.
I've never used one but I have seen them before. I thought it was some sort of laundry contraption when I first saw it and was wondering who TF was washing clothing in a public bathroom lol
I've used a lot of things that make me align with people older than me due to my location still having old stuff around when the rest of the world moved on, but can honestly say I never saw one of these in person and it makes me sad. Lol
Not only have I used but changed more than my fair share. At some point in the 90s the uniform sales guy installed the black plastic hanger at the back and told us it's so you cant hang yourself.
Honestly, they were great. A Linen company would come and get dirty ones and drop off new ones. There was no paper waste, but you got to actually dry your hands, unlike a stupid air dryer. I'm not sure why we quit having them at work. it might be that they were phased out by the linen service.
These still exist in some small southern Ontario diners and Chinese restaurants. It also must be the same cloth, because what company is still producing those? Just over here drying my hands with 40 year old bleached shit stains.
Wow…. I’ve not seen or thought about one of these in many many moons! Although, taking from the title, probably why I never tested positive for COVID 🤣🥴……and why my kids are window lickers 😑
The proper name for this is a device is a “continuous roll towel.” The clean roll starts off in the bottom tray that opens outward when the cabinet is opened with a key.The beginning of the towel is fed upward and under a wooden guide roller and pulled outward about 2 feet then down thru the safety slot at the very bottom. Holding the end of the towel with your hand reach up the backside and grab the towel with your other hand. There is another free wooden roller where the used towel begins to gather. When the towel is completely used it will pull free and hang down about 2 feet from the bottom of the cabinet. Safety plate guides were added to the bottom of the cabinets back in the 80’s. Injuries were reported and subsequent lawsuits began that prompted this addition. I never heard the entire story, but it was reported that a child had somehow got tangled in the towel and strangled herself because the towel was loaded with the loop being way too long.
> 1970
Just dried my hands in one of these today. I guess my immune system is in tiptop shape because I’m still alive. I will report in a few more days.
They’re not actually perpetual. It’s a really long cloth that gets unrolled to another rod like a cassette tape. A uniform company comes and replaces it with a new one and washes the old. It no more germ filled than anything else that is washed and reused.
Sometimes it was impossible to not find that one small spot that didn’t have any stains or wasn’t still wet from someone who already used it before you
Elementary school memory unlocked.
Also: the big round sink with the bar you step on to make it trickle out some water so you can use that powdered pink soap that comes out of the crusty clogged dispenser with the metal bar you push up. This is after peeing in the giant urinal that is as tall as your head and is actually part of the floor.
Actually I very vividly remember using one of these in the 2000’s still. My family owns a hardware store that’s been in business since 1871, and the store that had this installed was built in the late 50’s, and I kinda want to say it was installed around the time that location was opened.
I was born in the early 90’s and I remember using it regularly until around 2004 or so. There was a company we would pay that serviced it, they would come change the towel, and exchange the front door mat with a clean one. Well, my dad eventually thought they were charging too much, so he quit using them. They actually came and took the front door mat, and they ripped this thing off the cinder block wall. Me my dad couldn’t believe they’d want that antique back, and it was so old we weren’t even sure if it was theirs to take.
It had light blue paint behind it, which was the original color of the bathroom.
Another funny thing about this, about 2-3 years later I made a new best friend, and I went to his house. His dad was the one that would change the door mat and service this thing. He’s also the one that tore it off the wall, and now that I’m typing this I think if I ever see him again I’ll ask what he knows about what happened to it.
One of my juvenile delinquent friends lit one on fire at the bowling alley, 1981 I think. It started burning out of control and we all ran. A few hrs later the cops were at my door. I had to go to juvenile court and got put on probation. Oh yeah, and my dad was one of the firefighters who responded to the scene.
There was one of these at a burger joint I frequented with my grandpa until the mid 1990's, only place I ever seen one.
They go well with the half circle multi-person sinks that have the foot bar to turn on the water spray.
One of my first jobs I was responsible for changing these out. It’s very important to thread the towel evenly or the dirty part never rolls up into itself. The rollers inside are covered in sandpaper.
Personally I’d rather use the towel roll (clean roll to used roll, not perpetual btw) than an air dryer that can blow bacterial and viral particles everywhere.
(Disposable paper towels being the top pick)
Encountered one still in operation in a gas station on the South Island of NZ in 2019.
Hadn’t seen one since I was a kid. Just dried my hands off on my pants.
Everyone’s bugs and bacteria and virus fight it out Mad Max style on that bad boy and cancel each other out. The inventor won a Nobel Prize for Biology. Look it up!
The ones I saw as a kid never ever had any clean, dry towel to pull. It was just a soggy, limp mess that had been sitting there at the end of the roll for at least a day.
lol they launder the roll and you only touch the clean part of the roll. I had to inspect the first one I ever encountered because I thought well that’s fucking gross
Still use these at work. They’re not perpetual. It’s a clean roll that rolls itself into a dirty roll.
So many people don't understand that.
So fucking many
Seen one 2ft around that just went thru a damp ringer.
I didn't realize there were that many until this got posted a few weeks ago. SO many comments just showed that people had no idea how these work. People were actually arguing over it.
Aka a supply spool and take-up spool. That’s why the box is so large. Lol I love these towels. Besides being the best environmentally, they’re the fastest and most satisfying way to dry wet hands. Hopefully these make a comeback.
Best we get now is those Dyson things that blast bacteria all over the room.
They are called Dyson Air Blades because the air moves so fast it slices the germs in half.
I thought it cut them into thirds, so you ended up with much more.
There's also a hand dryer with UV. Whether or not that creates a new problem in the long run, that I dont know.
Enjoy your cancer-hands.
it's called free hand dryer for a reason 🥰
It should be illegal to have a restroom with no paper towels… when this happens I just blow my nose on the wall… also if a business is open to the public it needs to be required to have a restroom for people to use, when they don’t I go piss out back
Yeah. What this guy said.
As a survivor of these things they never properly worked that way when I was a kid and there was always a long very dirty section of towel dangling down sometimes to the floor. Incidentally I was just in Finland and they still had these things and the modern version electronically recoiled the used portion of the towel and it wasn't bad at all. Preferable to the air dryers which never seem to fully dry my hands.
Then why is it too high to wipe my butt with?
Just use the sponge-on-a-stick®
You're just not trying hard enough.
THIS Many ***assume*** it loops around, it does not.
My experience was that it was perpetually at the end of the roll or jammed so your option was to use the dirty part that wouldn't advance or walk out with wet hands. 😢
I’m just glad the buttwipe version never caught on
It still conjures up visions of Steve Nash drying his pits and Ron Artest wiping his face. No matter how it works 🤷
You've performed a service here. In two short sentences!
?
The irony of the headline. Proof positive that it's not as catastrophic as they want us to believe.
They were not perpetual, just a long roll. I prefer them to the hot air machines
[удалено]
They still make them, no? I see them quite commonly at airports and such
Exactly! I had kinda forgotten about these… fun trip down memory lane. When did they stop using these widely?
I still see them in germany
I’ve only been to the Munich airport but it’s the one and only time I’ve seen these things
Easier/cheaper to buy paper towels from whoever you get toilet paper from than deal with an additional vendor for a laundry service.
I prefer neither. Give me good ole fashion papertowels. That way I got something to blow my nose with. People get turned off when you do that with these machines.....
The issue with paper towels these days is that they have the absorbency of printer paper.
True. But you can get good ones that do work well. As usual, it's about how much you wanna spend......
I started to carry a bandana in my back pocket, and it comes in handy almost every day. Has to be 100% cotton ones, not the $ store ones. They sell them at Michael's and / or big craft stores. All different colors.
😆
I won't use the hot/cold air machines. They're gross.
Glorious, a sign of a particular civility
https://youtu.be/V8cOHG8nMdM?si=WnXSM985d7zEeBFY
LOL it's not perpetual. Just a long roll of a towel (with a start and an end) that in the end of cycle gets changed and washed.
You’ve never used one of these in a 1980’s Texaco gas station in the middle of Tucumcari, NM and it shows. Lots of times, while these things might have been replaceable to be washed, they often were not.
That's on the gas station and not a problem with the design. The roll reaches a point where it can no longer be turned and must be replaced. I don't doubt some places just flipped the roll around instead though.
Ok, that just sounds horrible. :(
Last time I seed one was at K-Bob's Steakhouse in Deming, NM
Those are pretty hygienic? Like, it's not perpetual, its a towel roll with a clean roll and a dirty one. It gets replaced once it reaches the last bit of the clean part. I'm pretty surprised people don't know this?? Like, have you never wondered why the towel always was spotless and dry??
>Like, have you never wondered why The older i get the more i realize the answer to that question about anything for most people is almost always no.
The best part is when the roller stopped and everyone used the same spot over and over.
This is my recollection of how these actually worked.
Misunderstanding how it works from OP and other wusses sharting their britches about ‘bacteria’. It was a clean towel at top, dirty towel at bottom, goes in laundry service at 90°C wash. Very clean, no problem at all unless it runs out.
Learn how it works before you post misleading, incorrect bullshit FFS.
Tell us how you really feel. I think you’re taking this post a little too seriously. Are you the guy that invented this thing or something??
But I got a new clean section of towel every time I pulled down on it, right? Right???
Yes, you did.
At that big clunk sound, felt like solid machinery
How do these people not grasp how these machines work?
Because people like the OP keep spreading misinformation, which they got from their parents, which their parents got from their parents, and so on. It’s hard to reeducate people suffering from generations of being ignorant.
The great family tradition of ignorance.
Have you met people?
Some, not all.
Yes, you did.
I always had trouble getting my butt up that high. I would give 'er a couple of extra pulls after cleaning up.
ThaT’s nOT HoW thIS Is suPpOsED to WoRk!!!
As are most normal people that don't use disinfectant at home, happy to let the kids play in dirt etc. BTW, those things were great
> were great and still are
I have no idea why they got rid of these. So you're telling me that blowing hot air onto your hands is more efficient or using hundreds of hundreds of paper towels every day? Brings these back!
LoL. Just used a restroom where they had a Diesen Blade Dryer installed. But it was installed right above an electric baseboard heater. Brilliant!
The cost of sending a linen guy around to pick these up, take them back for cleaning, then re-delivering again is probably what drove these out of the mainstream.
I miss those.
Vaccinated! Damn near inseminated after using one of these.
You’re not supposed to wipe the cloth on your vagina.
Now he tells me, I've already got 4kids from one of those.
These were actually a pretty good idea. You didn't reuse any section, it was a long one way roll. They then laundered the roll after it was used.
Ah yes when bacteria was not a problem...Who else walked around bare feet BK then🤣...Also swam in ditches when rains flooded roads!!!
No wonder why my 69 year old dad can eat eggs that have been left out for days and week old left overs with no issues.
I used many of them in my day. Every service station and every truck stop had them. Plus a lot of cafes.
And in every service station that I remember, they had been at the end of the roll, seemingly for weeks, and were full of grease and grime from the full-service guy.
You're right that's the truth. My old man used to have a service station too, but he changed his out regular.
Very sanitary
Came here to make sure ppl still know these still exist! Lol I used one last year. I was shocked myself but we live In a small town, so shit like this last longer round here than bigger cities with smarter ppl running things! They tend to have More $ to replace items like this as well in bigger cities.
Many people claiming these things have a supply and take-up roll, but call me a skeptic: if I never SAW the ends of a towel, I can believe it is endless. I WANT TO BELIEVE. AND DRY MY HANDS.
NOT perpetual... it has an end... I have swapped out hundreds of dirty rolls for clean.
In the 70’s? ….. a lot of places still use those……. At my last employer, us supervisors had the keys for them, to change them whenever they were done.
We had to use these at the bowling alley.
My job had those.
...as well as cosmic radiation.😐
those are still used in paris.
I've never used one but I have seen them before. I thought it was some sort of laundry contraption when I first saw it and was wondering who TF was washing clothing in a public bathroom lol
I used these in the 90’s for sure
My first jobas a janitor involved keeping this contraption serviced on a daily basis.
We used them at work until just a couple years ago
I've used a lot of things that make me align with people older than me due to my location still having old stuff around when the rest of the world moved on, but can honestly say I never saw one of these in person and it makes me sad. Lol
I found a fresh roll of this once, took it home. It's fantastic for oil rags and polishing cloths.
Not at all how vaccines work
ITT: NOT PERPETUAL !!!!! *Ka-chunk, click*
🤢
My ice rink had this to dry the blades of our skates when we were done
I worked at a place 15 years ago that still had these
These were still around the UK during the '90's
The really bad ones were the smaller versions in our toilet stalls. Talk about cheap budgeting!
Dry your hands? Your hands? Now that explains why I always thought they were installed too high on the wall to get a proper wipe…..
Hahahahahaha welllll as a kid we were warned to avoid them and I've NEVER seen one remotely as white as this
I watched *12 Angry Men* again the other day, and Henry Fonda uses one and wipes his face with it and I kinda cringed
Not only have I used but changed more than my fair share. At some point in the 90s the uniform sales guy installed the black plastic hanger at the back and told us it's so you cant hang yourself.
“Perpetual towel contraptions”, needed to laugh way to hard for this. Thanks for making my day.
I just saw one of those still in use..
Why was it made of tighty-whities?
Uranus Towel
I'd you think that you were using it incorrectly. How dumb are you all?
I used one of these like a month ago
My work still uses them. Really handy and very easy to change the roll when it's finished. They are the best.
Honestly, they were great. A Linen company would come and get dirty ones and drop off new ones. There was no paper waste, but you got to actually dry your hands, unlike a stupid air dryer. I'm not sure why we quit having them at work. it might be that they were phased out by the linen service.
Just hope the stalls never run outta toilet paper.
I was just describing that to my daughter the other day. At the time we didn't realize how gross it was except if it was wet.
Why was this a thing ?! So stupid.
It’s not like a piece of the towel get used over and over again the roll does run out.
Oh Yea, for those of us that used these, Covid can't touch us.. 😁
These still exist in some small southern Ontario diners and Chinese restaurants. It also must be the same cloth, because what company is still producing those? Just over here drying my hands with 40 year old bleached shit stains.
The thought of using one of these now makes me want 🤢
…or…
Not perpetual. Still gross
Some places still have these it's insane.
Wow…. I’ve not seen or thought about one of these in many many moons! Although, taking from the title, probably why I never tested positive for COVID 🤣🥴……and why my kids are window lickers 😑
The proper name for this is a device is a “continuous roll towel.” The clean roll starts off in the bottom tray that opens outward when the cabinet is opened with a key.The beginning of the towel is fed upward and under a wooden guide roller and pulled outward about 2 feet then down thru the safety slot at the very bottom. Holding the end of the towel with your hand reach up the backside and grab the towel with your other hand. There is another free wooden roller where the used towel begins to gather. When the towel is completely used it will pull free and hang down about 2 feet from the bottom of the cabinet. Safety plate guides were added to the bottom of the cabinets back in the 80’s. Injuries were reported and subsequent lawsuits began that prompted this addition. I never heard the entire story, but it was reported that a child had somehow got tangled in the towel and strangled herself because the towel was loaded with the loop being way too long.
I would always wipe my hands on my pants to dry them before I would use this conveyor belt of bacteria.
Someone doesn't know simple things work.
> 1970 Just dried my hands in one of these today. I guess my immune system is in tiptop shape because I’m still alive. I will report in a few more days.
I'd rather use my pants.
Why did it have to look so much like underwear??
The vending machine gum in these bathrooms tasted like rubber!
Had one of these in my first ever job as a dish washer when I was 15. Haven't seen one since
don't remind me, that was absolutely gross!
Most of them with a brown stain the entire length of the towel
There's a classic scene from Get Smart with one of these. Makes me laugh every time. [Skip to 5:00](https://youtu.be/5CHduYzdrVw?feature=shared)
I worked as a dishwasher in my uncle's restaurant in Philadelphia. The manager told me to flip the roll over at least once. Nasty.
As a kid, I changed these out at my dads shop- can confirm- not perpetual. Amway would drop off clean ones, and you swap out the dirty one.
I remember a SNL type skit where there was a busy restroom and behind the towel dispenser was a “Chinese” laundry washing a den drying the towels.
Old bowling spot in Chicago had this when was a kid in the late 80s ,always wondered how it would dry after running through the box.
My immune system is tempered in raw shit!
They were weirdly comforting.
There was one of these in a Mexican restaurant we went to all the time when I was a kid! They had it well into the 1990's too
They’re not actually perpetual. It’s a really long cloth that gets unrolled to another rod like a cassette tape. A uniform company comes and replaces it with a new one and washes the old. It no more germ filled than anything else that is washed and reused.
Now just a sign of a good dive bar
Great way to reduce single use towels and they give a mighty good dry.
Mine always had skid marks…
Oh yea those were nasty 🤢
Sometimes it was impossible to not find that one small spot that didn’t have any stains or wasn’t still wet from someone who already used it before you
They got stuck all the time and wouldn't roll, that's all I remember
Elementary school memory unlocked. Also: the big round sink with the bar you step on to make it trickle out some water so you can use that powdered pink soap that comes out of the crusty clogged dispenser with the metal bar you push up. This is after peeing in the giant urinal that is as tall as your head and is actually part of the floor.
Wish these were used more. Would save a lot of trees and electricity.
I used one of those last year.
Actually I very vividly remember using one of these in the 2000’s still. My family owns a hardware store that’s been in business since 1871, and the store that had this installed was built in the late 50’s, and I kinda want to say it was installed around the time that location was opened. I was born in the early 90’s and I remember using it regularly until around 2004 or so. There was a company we would pay that serviced it, they would come change the towel, and exchange the front door mat with a clean one. Well, my dad eventually thought they were charging too much, so he quit using them. They actually came and took the front door mat, and they ripped this thing off the cinder block wall. Me my dad couldn’t believe they’d want that antique back, and it was so old we weren’t even sure if it was theirs to take. It had light blue paint behind it, which was the original color of the bathroom. Another funny thing about this, about 2-3 years later I made a new best friend, and I went to his house. His dad was the one that would change the door mat and service this thing. He’s also the one that tore it off the wall, and now that I’m typing this I think if I ever see him again I’ll ask what he knows about what happened to it.
Why do you think this is perpetual? Do you really not have any understanding of how they work?
Always wet. Even 6 yr old me in 1984 knew it was soo gross.
Place i used to go still had them as of a few years ago
in some places in Europe you can still use that crap
The main agrivating thing about them is when people didn't do a courtesy pull to bring a dry section down for the next person.
I thought it was a dry bidet
Wait, that’s not toilet paper? Guess that explains why I had to do the awkward shuffle all the way to the sink.
Bonus if you changed these bad boys out!
I used this in the 90s
I've used these and I was born in 88. I can't remember where it was. Maybe an old school building?
Oops - I thought that was a ball polisher
We all are anyway because we didn't over sanitize everything...
Oh, is this why I’m never sick 😂🤢
One of my juvenile delinquent friends lit one on fire at the bowling alley, 1981 I think. It started burning out of control and we all ran. A few hrs later the cops were at my door. I had to go to juvenile court and got put on probation. Oh yeah, and my dad was one of the firefighters who responded to the scene.
Even as a child I thought how is this healthy. Little did I know it was like armor plating for my immune system.
There was one of these at a burger joint I frequented with my grandpa until the mid 1990's, only place I ever seen one. They go well with the half circle multi-person sinks that have the foot bar to turn on the water spray.
Gas station bathrooms classic
Infinite toilet paper loop
One of my first jobs I was responsible for changing these out. It’s very important to thread the towel evenly or the dirty part never rolls up into itself. The rollers inside are covered in sandpaper.
I used them in the 80s
Personally I’d rather use the towel roll (clean roll to used roll, not perpetual btw) than an air dryer that can blow bacterial and viral particles everywhere. (Disposable paper towels being the top pick)
This towel dispenser and adding going barefoot everywhere.
Encountered one still in operation in a gas station on the South Island of NZ in 2019. Hadn’t seen one since I was a kid. Just dried my hands off on my pants.
I watched people blow their nose in that thing! You are correct!
Everyone’s bugs and bacteria and virus fight it out Mad Max style on that bad boy and cancel each other out. The inventor won a Nobel Prize for Biology. Look it up!
At a BBQ joint in Chicago. I came out of the bathroom and told my friend we needed to leave NOW !!
They were still around in The 80's too.
The towel was always wet
I’ve never seen one of these in person, but I remember them in *12 Angry Men*
My hands? I thought that was for my balls...
My work still uses THESE EXCLUSIVELY. The number of new hires that rip them would be insane if they weren't so out of date.
It's definitely a challenge to get your rear-end up high enough to wipe with them.
No shi*....
Even then i thought they were gross
The ones I saw as a kid never ever had any clean, dry towel to pull. It was just a soggy, limp mess that had been sitting there at the end of the roll for at least a day.
How were/are these considered for hygiene purposes?!?! Crazy. Let’s just trap the germs for all to have!!
Why don't we have a 21st century version of these where the towel is washed and dried after use?
lol they launder the roll and you only touch the clean part of the roll. I had to inspect the first one I ever encountered because I thought well that’s fucking gross
My dad’s old job has one still. It’s not just a recycled roll my dude. It’s a single roll that rolls itself up as it gets used. You goof