Howard Snyder, who became head of Maytag's experimental department, was hired shortly after F.L. Maytag noticed that were no complaints about his farm machinery breaking down in the Austin, Minn., area, where Snyder worked as a mechanic. Joining the company in 1998, Snyder sold during the summer and designed improvements during the winter-a combination that convinced F.L. Maytag to train every Maytag salesman in mechanical workings of equipment they sold. Snyder supervised the design of wooden and aluminum-tub washers and the Gyrafoam, and by 1915, F.L. Maytag declared that 90 percent of Maytag's products had been invented or improved by Howard Snyder. A few years later, L.B. Maytag said, "F.L. Maytag stood at the helm of the firm, and Howard Snyder 'built the stuff'."