Skywatcher, I appreciate your description above.  I never thought of it like that.  I have some that fit in the first part of that list.  Maybe my standards fit in the lower half of the list, I'm not sure.  It is interesting to see this.  Where would the older LC Smiths (~1920's) fall in your opinion?

skywatcher wrote:

The Skyriter was built as a travel typewriter and was expected to type a few pages a week, while whom ever was using it was out on assignment or on holiday.

I'd suggest a much higher duty cycle for the Skyriter. It may be an ultra-portable, but it was marketed to serve the needs of travelling businessmen and journalists, and clearly would have been required to type a lot more than just a few pages a week.

skywatcher wrote:

The Secretarial or 88 was a desk top typewriter designed for use in a lawyers office or similar where it would be expected to type a couple of letters or pages per hour. The Super-Speed was the heavy-hauler of this family, designed as a typing pool machine where it would be in near constant use for 8 hours a day typing out a page every 5 minutes.

‘Secretarial’ was a name applied to several different models such as a variation of the Smith-Corona Model 88, but also the Model 72, and Model 62. You’re trying to create a differentiation between the Secretarial and Super-Speed, but considering that the Secretarial superseded the Super-Speed, they are all essentially the same typewriter built to satisfy the same service requirements, in other words an office-spec standard designed to be used by professional typists.

skywatcher wrote:

later Royals like the Sprite, although they have Royal printed on them, they were made in Japan by Silver-Saeko (now Saeko-Epson)

It wasn't just Royal, which was owned by Litton Industries at the time, that sub-contracted the manufacture of portable models to Japanese companies. Other Litton-owned companies under the Royal umbrella such as Imperial also sold the identical private-label Japanese made machines (for example, compare a Royal Sprite to an Imperial 220). Incidentally, majority shares of Royal were later owned by Volkswagen, and in turn sold to Olivetti. 

The Japanese company in question was Silver-Seiko, which to my knowledge has nothing to do with Seiko Epson. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the assumption that Seiko Espon derived from the watch manufacturer Seiko, but Silver-Seiko (a.k.a. Silver-Reed), which apparently is still in business, was similar to Brother in that it started off as a sewing machine manufacturer.



 

Although I haven't used mine much, it is nice.  I use it when I want to sit on the couch and type.

I've got two Skyriters.  One was practically given to me at an antique shop just recently (nice bonus- it had the original bill of sale and instruction manual).  I don't care for either of them really. They are okay for small portables. Maybe they are both duds, but I don't really like the way they feel.  The recent acquisition still needs cleaning and a few tweaks.  Maybe it will improve.

Ok, now my turn (again).  When I want to type a fast love letter to my girlfriend, copy a recipe, or send a short note to a friend or neighbor--I use "Daddy Sam," my 1949 Royal Arrow portable.  When I want to type something involving two or more pages, maybe a longer love letter to my girlfriend or a business letter, I can use any of my upright Underwoods, Royals, or Remingtons.  Underwoods--especially the 150 machines, have a very unique touch, in that it is about an eighth or sixteenth of an inch shorter stroke than the others, but they feel good to the fingers.  They also print very well.  The Royals, older style Underwoods, and Remingtons have somewhat of a deeper touch, but they feel pretty good and do a good job.  If I want to practice my accuracy, I drag out the "Blind Bat,"  a 1947 Remington KMC which is ex-military that I put blank keytops on.  Not being able to see the letters on this one helps me to remember by touch just where they are.  Yes, I have typed love letters to my girlfriend on this one as well.  By the way, I have a cool blue ribbon in this one.  And the touch is quite light and bouncy to the fingers.  Remingtons have a very good touch, but the quality of the print on a lot of them is mixed.  Still, I like to see a few oddities and peculiarities on a typewriter.  I used to be a little uptight about that, but now, I like to see sometimes bent letters, cut-off letters, and letters higher or lower than others.  It just gives the typewriter character.  I had once thought to bend a few typebars a little on a machine, but then I have plenty of oldies out there that have less than perfect print--like my 100-year old Royal X-series, my 103-year old L. C. Smith, and my 103-year old Oliver (a 3-bank machine that once I get used to typing on it, it's hard to adapt back to a 4-banker).  Anyway, if I need absolute precision in printing, I can always use a computer, but I still think crooked, smudgy print is cool.