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I agree with you, echan, that the action is an important part of the kinesthetic typing experience and what characterizes the "action" is fascinating. You did something analogous to adjusting spark plug timing and I'm interested what effect this had on the feel, but my hunch is that most of action is inherent in the design of the linkage and cannot be modified. Throw length is one variable and a second is the way the linkage handles kinetic energy. A satisfying action stores energy on the down stroke the way a baseball bat stores energy as you swing it, so when the bat meets the ball (you hope) most of the work is done by the bat and not your hands. The reaction of the bat on your hand as you swing it gives the satisfying feeling of swinging the thing! Type actions are more complicated than bats and more like piano actions (that is, by the way, both the term of art for the physical linkages that transmit finger stroke to string and for the feel of the thing to the finger).
I have now exceeded the maximum allowable length of connected though for a Twitter age post and the gods are rumbling in displeasure! ![]()
One of my favorite actions is the LC Smith Secretarial - it has a long stroke and when you get up to speed the thing seems to fairly bounce under your fingers - and one of my least is Royal Futura, which does not give me the feeling of accumulating energy at all but feels like I am slamming the type into the paper with a rigid finger extension. At least on the particular examples that I tried.
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I notice that the stroke action in an Underwood keyboard, beginning with the SX-150, is about 1/8" shallower than most other typewriters, including the older-style Underwoods. Oh, it's a very good touch, and surprisingly light. I just remember there was something very different about the feel about a newer style Underwood versus the older style and other brand. That's when I decided to measure the stroke of the keys on several typewriters, and what I've found was that Underwood was about 1/8" shorter of stroke overall.
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Back to the opening-post about the Olympia SKM...
Found some photos of a SKM.
It looks like it has that special key-top (for horizontal single-spacing to double-spacing) that showed up on SG1 and SG3 machines as well.
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And it looks like the manual SKM made way for the electric version called the "Report Electric"...but was otherwise known as the Olympia model # SKE-A63...made in Germany and eventually in Japan.
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I was able to locate and add this 1968-made Olympia SKM to my collection back in 6-2024 or so.
Lovely machine on which to type and quite the "looker" as well. I keep this one on my daily-grab book-case next to my desk. Makes it easy to grab some of my favourites out of the normal use-rotation schedule.
I added some "Leafy Green" satin-finish colour by Rustoleum to its ribbon cover .
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Sorry...had a bit of a brain-fart when posting,above.
My SKM was made in 1976...not 1968.
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Yes, The SKM is a relatively rare machine. Effectively an SM9 in a larger case masquerading as an office typewriter. My theory is that Olympia looked at the Adler Special and thought that they might like a slice of that market too. Problem was, the Adler Special didn't sell that well either. There wasn't that much call for an industrial portable.
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Thanks Tom...I suspected that, too, about the potential for the SKM.
I love typing on both my SKM and my Olympia Monica made in the UK. Light, easy on which to type, and very precise. Plus. I do not get tired as I do with the metal-bodied Olympias from the earlier decades.
I like how the SKM allows you to type a letter and a business-sized envelop, all on the same machine but with none of the weight of the standard-sized Olympias to deal with when moving it around your office desk.
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Back to the topic of the Opening Post No. 1 of this discussion.
I have five (5) Royal Futura 800's in my collection. I really did not like how you had to open the ribbon-cover to change ribbon-colour selection.
I made the modification (shown in the photos below) on all of my 5 machines. One this machine, I used a spare lever from an Olivetti parts machine in my stash.
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Great modification. I really fail to understand why Royal didn't do something similar in production. All it would have taken would be to machine an extra slot in the casing above the margin set. Not rocket science ! ![]()
