Noticed in an episode of "Mad Men" - set in the mid 1960s, that an apartment had a single-lever mixer tap, which presumably uses ceramic 1/4 turn valves.
Were such beasts available in the US in the 1960s ? I don't recall seeing
1/4 turn taps in the UK domestically till the mid 1990s. (Although to be fair, I probably wasn't that interested :) )