<P> In the Brick Lane district and surrounding area of London, England, bagels (or, as locally spelled, "beigels") have been sold since the middle of the 19th century . They were often displayed in the windows of bakeries on vertical wooden dowels, up to a metre in length, on racks . </P> <P> Bagels were brought to the United States by immigrant Polish Jews, with a thriving business developing in New York City that was controlled for decades by Bagel Bakers Local 338, They had contracts with nearly all bagel bakeries in and around the city for its workers, who prepared all their bagels by hand . </P> <P> The bagel came into more general use throughout North America in the last quarter of the 20th century with automation . Daniel Thompson started work on the first commercially viable bagel machine in 1958; bagel baker Harry Lender, his son, Murray Lender, and Florence Sender leased this technology and pioneered automated production and distribution of frozen bagels in the 1960s . Murray also invented pre-slicing the bagel . </P> <P> Around 1900, the "bagel brunch" became popular in New York City . The bagel brunch consists of a bagel topped with lox, cream cheese, capers, tomato, and red onion . This and similar combinations of toppings have remained associated with bagels into the 21st century in the US . </P>

When did bagels become popular in the us