"Skiteing" is what we call it in Australia. In Scottish this word refers to heavy drinking (see below) and in the North of England "skite" means "a quick, oblique blow or stroke; a chopping blow" - which might perhaps best describe my typing style.
When I got the Royal home, eager to type with it, I found the carriage skipped, and suspected I must have done something to upset it by taking it out of its case a few times and using it while on board planes.
So I must confess to feeling a wee bit miffed when, a couple of months ago, Brisbane Typospherians Steve Snow and Scott Kernaghan visited me and Steve asked if he could have a type with the Companion. My jaw dropped as I watched the Royal behave immaculately upon Steve's touch, and Scott offered the opinion that it was my typing style that made the carriage skip. Richard Polt has a great typing style and I know he has used this portable without problems.
The 1909 Typewriter Topics item, however, would seem to confirm what many Typospherians already suspected, that the same model of different typewriters perform much differently from user to user. There are countless instances of Typospherians reading that such and such a typewriter is a poor typer, yet finding the model to type perfectly well for them - or, of course, vice-versa. The Everest, the Olivetti Valentine and the Smith-Corona Series 5 all spring immediately to mind (though, generally, Olympia SMs and Torpedo 18s are found to be universally pleasing).
Many of us do believe typewriters "have their human side", and are "ready imitators" of our typing styles. Perhaps the Royal Companion was just not meant for me, while my Erika 9 is (other Typospherians who have used my Erika 9 seem to remain a little bewildered as to why I rate it so highly). I used the Erika 9 as the prime example of what to me is the "perfect typewriter" in the poll Richard Polt held a while ago, and of course that poll revealed a vast array of preferences held by Typospherians.
Still, I find it interesting that typewriter aficionados have been aware of this phenomenon for at least 105 years!
Now ...
HOW A TYPEWRITER CAN BEAT THE BOTTLE
Join 'Typewriters Anonymous'
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Apparently there is such a thing as Adirondack Alcohol Addiction Treatment Programs.
Drunk or sober, it appears that it was around this time (1909) that the word "typewriter" to describe both machine and user began to be used only for the machine. The "affectation""typist", according to Typewriter Topics, was introduced from England:
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