It depends on which machine I am using.  I'd say that most of the time, I would be a dragger.  This is especially the case for the ultra-portables, and the right side carriage return lever.  On the standards with the machines with the return lever on the left, I might be closer to a thrower with the standards if I get into a groove while writing.  Probably more of a dragger with the portables.  Of course, this doesn't apply to the electrics.

I had never heard of throwing before, and it sounds like a showy speed typing technique which has little significance for the average typist. Even the instructions are showy and make it sound more complicated than it is.

If I owned the typewriters and I saw the typists throwing the carriage over - or worse, practicing throwing the carriage - I would ask them to use the machine the way the designer intended! If carriages were meant to be hurled then manual typewriters would have been equipped with carriage brakes.

 

Kat, that's a great insight that our world is less physical - I think I had it once before but it was time for a refresher insight. 

I am reminded of Innocents Abroad. Mark Twain tells some whoppers there but he is so matter of fact about some of their travelling arrangements that I feel they are veracious, and some of his days sounded like tough days in special forces training, while he only seems to think them worthy of note that that day was more than usually unpleasant! It does not seem to occur to him he's done anything beyond the average person. Regular people physically manipulated the world more and had a better feel for the limits of physical objects, as well as better physical skill, so things which might seem harebrained or dangerous now would have been in the ordinary compass of activity then. Got it.

I've thought about which machine I might practice carriage throwing on - an office machine, definitely, neither too rickety nor too highly valued... aha!  The Royal Empress came to mind and was dismissed because of its plastic arm extension as the last machine you would violently return the carriage on. But I have a second one with a broken arm! Woohoo! Pre-modified! I'm going to toss that puppy.

KatLondon wrote:

Now our machines are elderly - they've had all the heavy use, and all the neglect, and instead of a nice service contract they have an amateur with a few Q tips, a screwdriver and a tweezer!

Yes, throwing made sense in an office pool where you had people typing furiously all day on machines that were regularly maintained and replaced, and the second per line saved added up to gains in efficiency. For me, I think it would be neat to be able to do it on occasion, just to be able to emulate the typing techniques of the day, but I am not typing mass amounts of copy and it would be silly for me to casually type to the end of the line and then throw the carriage. It does look awesome watching people do it though.
 

Repartee wrote:

Kat, that's a great insight that our world is less physical - I think I had it once before but it was time for a refresher insight. 

I am reminded of Innocents Abroad. Mark Twain tells some whoppers there but he is so matter of fact about some of their travelling arrangements that I feel they are veracious, and some of his days sounded like tough days in special forces training, while he only seems to think them worthy of note that that day was more than usually unpleasant! It does not seem to occur to him he's done anything beyond the average person. Regular people physically manipulated the world more and had a better feel for the limits of physical objects, as well as better physical skill, so things which might seem harebrained or dangerous now would have been in the ordinary compass of activity then. Got it.

I've thought about which machine I might practice carriage throwing on - an office machine, definitely, neither too rickety nor too highly valued... aha!  The Royal Empress came to mind and was dismissed because of its plastic arm extension as the last machine you would violently return the carriage on. But I have a second one with a broken arm! Woohoo! Pre-modified! I'm going to toss that puppy.

Another funny thing:  Mark Twain was one of the first authors to use a typewriter.