I’ve heard “snappy” applied to the best typewriters, the worst typewriters, and nearly everything in between. While almost everyone uses it with a positive connotation, the noise of the depth and breadth of machines it’s used to describe has drowned out any signal of actual meaning for me.
I hear someone say that a “typewriter is snappy”, and it translates to me as the tautology that a “typewriter is typewriter-y”. Yet I know the difference between the action of an Olympia SM3 versus an Olivetti Lettera 32 are as markedly different from each other as a Remington Quiet-Riter is from an Olympia SG1. Even a freshly cleaned, oiled, and properly adjusted Royal KMG with a brand new platen is dramatically different from that same machine just out of a barn after 77 years of dust collection, cobweb accumulation, and abject neglect. Yet I know people who would call both of them snappy without a moment’s hesitation.
I get the feeling that many are attempting to use the word to describe the “action of the machine” rather than just the noise it makes or the “voice” it presents. One might say some sound flat and tin-y while others are solid and sonorous. One might describe a typewriter with a new platen as having the velvety sweetness of a romantic crooner. These words all get at something. They strive to touch the soul of the machine and how it functions. Snappy as an adjective to describe a typewriter has lost touch with the soul of typewriters. We need some new words!
What other words could we use to better describe the “action” of a typewriter’s key levers and typebar assemblies? Words that give more depth and actual meaning to the joy of typing on the wealth of machines that one might run across in the wild?
If you were to put these new words onto the perpendicular axes of speed (fast versus slow) and a measure like key travel distance (deep versus shallow) where would they sit? Are there other axes we should consider plotting the “soul of a typewriter” on to better situate descriptive words of typewriters, their condition, qualities, and how well they work? Maybe we include an axis of “press” from soft to firm? How might we verbally quantify the touch and feel of the keys and how they respond to the variety of typists? How might we better capture the engineering of a machine and how well it has been maintained? There are miles of distance between the performance of a Hermes 3000 and the typewriter-like simulacra known as the Maplefield Classic Portable Manual Typewriter. We need some words to help convey this to someone who lacks the personal experience.
I’ve got some ideas already, but I thought it would be more interesting to put the idea out to the creativity of the community to see how far we might expand the universe of the idea first.
What better words could we be using to expand the experience of the space?
As an aside, snappy should never mean snap-off. I’m looking at you Shanghai Weilv Mechanism Company.
A swift, whip lash tap against paper and platten.
(I couldn’t think of one singular word, so I’m just describing how it felt to type on one of my typewriters recently.)
I have an Olympia SM-2 that does that! I’m going to name it ‘Indiana’, after Indiana Jones.
Some machines feel like they have weighed keys like pianos. My SG1 for example. Then I have a Traveller De Luxe that feels spongy. I think this might come from the weight of the mechanism being light or heavy, which results in more or less kinetic energy you can store into its inertia. And it might originate in the stiffness of the linkages. My trusty old Torpedo 6 has a feeling to itself that I can’t get around calling clunky. My contribution to this collection are:
weighed, spongy, stiff, inertia, and clunky
Great topic. I feel sounds help; often, what something sounds like describes the action that caused it.
I used to describe my Hermes 3000 machines as sounding like a Hollywood movie silencer gunshot, but a collector friend of mine described their sound better as a nice pair of scissors opening and closing.
When in use, my Blue Bird / Torpedo 18b sounds like airgun pellets hitting a metal target
My 1939 Royal KMM, like angels tap dancing . . . : )
https://preview.redd.it/z8he420ie8qh1.jpeg?width=1507&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0e960f4925751f7edaabaa05be1ee2c60e31d3b3
Perhaps these TV series Batman sound effects could be associated with our machines
Don Martin (Mad Comic) may be of use too – My Blue Bird 18b is deffo “FWACK”.
https://preview.redd.it/nxxkm1ese8qh1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e4e31a9a63f7875632e34c9b26d85d877246eb2
My typewriter is a dutiful and independent colleague with near-infinite technical precision and a reasonable respect and patience for all of my ideas, musings, and mistakes.
I have a low mileage Undie 21, and the key action feels tight. Everything is set to factory minimum tolerances.
Forget about the physical sensations -they are as diverse as humans and typewriters are- and embrace the emotional and inspirational feelings. The best one comes from an Underwoord Portable ad campaign: “gives wings to words”.
https://preview.redd.it/1tdhvma50aqh1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b992f91f128bf5b2410487428835759523c0ec6e
I’m definitely guilty of using the word “snappy” a ton about different machines. I guess what I am trying to say with it is that the action is quick and animated- like the typewriter comes to life with the pressing of the keys.
I don’t think I use the word for every single great machine. For example, Remington Quiet-Riter or Super-Riter are among my faves- but they have a softer smooth feel that I would not call snappy.
I find my Valentine to be very snappy. I get feedback from the keyboard which makes me want to write more and more.
The KMM – a completely different machine- is also snappy. A light touch kicks into gear all of that machinery under that big beautiful shell and each key stroke has serious momentum.
But I like this challenge. I love typewriters because I love writing and I love words. So I should absolutely expand my vocabulary when talking about my typewriters.
Others words in my arsenal: chunky/chonky, buttery (H3K), satisfying, but I tell ya I go back to snappy often. Because certain machines just “snap” into action. Like ready soldiers at attention waiting for my next command and encouraging me to come to life as much with as much enthusiasm.
Snappy adjacent?
The terms to describe the keyfeel of a Typewriter aren’t/shouldn’t be intended to describe the soul of the machine.
Snappy is overused in this for sure, but apt in most cases unless it’s just a low effort bit of AI copy slop.
In my experience,
a Typewriter’s soul reveals itself to the folks that are MEANT to be their custodian for a time.
I find most objects that serve a creative purpose to be this way;
They absolutely have voices, but only the right person(people?) can hear them.
People don’t find Typewriters.
Typewriters find people.
Anywho-
typebars clipping as soldiers boots landing. machine gun staccato of ink upon pages longing to be filled.
consonants, vowels…
making words that have sounds –
an intentional dance of fingers along lettered bezels, giving birth to stories whispered until the twilight of our days.
A tool used for its intended purpose has a soul, but it’s up to us to draw the words up from the well and breathe life into rubber, ink, and steel.
Hi Chris, you proferred so many examples that I’m sure you’ll elicit a lot of responses. I don’t have my thesaurus handy (but that might be considered cheating when we’re pursuing the soul) and I can’t even think of a single word adjective except maybe ‘pounce’ for my S-C 5 series Sterling and my 1941 Corona Comet. So like a cat leaping onto the page. Maybe that’s why you see so many cats around typewriters for a professional courtesy visit. I would like to make a case or description for my Remington Noiseless machines Medium and Large. People are often warned (I think I’ve even seen you caution folks) that they are not to everyone’s taste and I agree the difference is like coffee vs. tea, perhaps? Maybe more like coffee vs. absinthe. And you are right to warn newcomers off them because they are definitely not the accepted normal feel. But they do have soul value. How to describe them? Usually, instead of ‘snappy’ , they are often said to ‘kiss’ the page, and not slam against the platen. But as far as the feel on the keys? I can’t say I’ve seen the process of ‘felt’ being made i.e. for hats etc. but I think there are or used to be hammers that punched the fabric into shape and texture. The other image I have is of dough in a mixer or maybe the pizza guy punching up the dough. Those are the feel of a ‘Noiseless’. Best I can do, hope you get a ton of responses.
As it is turning out, my favorite machines so far as the ones I call Smacky– they feel very direct, typically feature shorter typebars, etc. Everything just feels more immediate than with other machines. I suppose the well-worn “snappy” might apply, but I’m thinking of something beyond the interface into the overall sense of the thing, its presence and accessibility.
As some examples, my SM3 is strong and direct, but by no means Smacky, whereas my Cole Steel 3 perhaps embodies the Smacky experience most fully. My Lettera 35L’s keyboard and feel– first encountered within the globular sea of plastic that is an Underwood 315– first pushed the word into my consciousness: “What is this smacky keyboard, and where I else might I find it housed?!”
Crisp staccato signals making themselves heard above a mushy, crowded broadband spectrum; a clarion call that demands attention.