Yep, you're right about the skill - it was THE lasting skill that I was taught at school and still use. Banging on keys on the manuals, gentle touching on the electrics, golf balls and interchangeable pinwheels for the different fonts. I expanded my skills in a TYPING POOL in the 60's at a huge pharmaceutical company (think Viagra), and rose through the ranks from lowly copy typist to the grown up job of audio typist! the audio recordings came from huge LP size audio discs that were recording on a bank of machines, then replayed on the machine at my desk !
Sounds positively Dickensian now, but hey, we had the weekends to look forward to, dancing to Georgie Fame, Alan Price, Kinks, Beatles, Billy J et al - those were the days !!!! and not a binge drinker in sight.