Who invented the qwerty keyboard

In the s, a politician, printer, newspaper man, and amateur inventor in Milwaukee by the name of Christopher Latham Sholes spent his free time developing various machines to make his businesses more efficient. One such invention was an early typewriter, which he developed with Samuel W. The earliest typewriter keyboard resembled a piano and was built with an alphabetical arrangement of 28 keys.

The team surely assumed it would be the most efficient arrangement. After all, anyone who used the keyboard would know immediately where to find each letter; hunting would be reduced, pecking would be increased. Why change things? The popular theory states that Sholes had to redesign the keyboard in response to the mechanical failings of early typewriters, which were slightly different from the models most often seen in thrift stores and flea markets.

The type bars connecting the key and the letter plate hung in a cycle beneath the paper. If a user quickly typed a succession of letters whose type bars were near each other, the delicate machinery would get jammed.

However, one of the typewriter prototypes had a slightly different keyboard that was only changed at the last minute. If it had been put into production this article would have been about the QWE. TY keyboard:. Form follows function and the keyboard trains the typist.

Nonetheless, Densmore believed in the general idea and urged Sholes to continue. What happened next is a little murky. Sholes filed another patent in which shows the piano keyboard had been dropped in favour of rows of circular keys, but it did not specify which letter was where.

Densmore demonstrated the typewriter to engineers at E. Sholes was apparently unhappy and demanded that the Y be reinstated between the T and the U. Remington put its No. But where did the arrangement come from? This was supposedly achieved by keeping common letter pairs apart.

But that cannot be true. Fact 1: Who invented the Keyboard? Fact 2: Who invented the Keyboard? Fact 3: Who invented the Keyboard? Fact 4: Who invented the Keyboard? Christopher Latham Sholes. Fact 5: Who invented the Keyboard? Christopher Latham Sholes was well educated but did not undertake higher education at a University. Dvorak also claimed that the unusual letter combinations in QWERTY layout were responsible for the frequently occurring typing errors.

However, despite the arguments made by Dr. In fact, his claims that the Dvorak layout is faster have also received a lot of criticism. Also, by the time Dvorak came into existence people had already become familiar with QWERTY and regular users were unwilling to learn a new typing system. Instead, most typistists would prefer to improve their typing accuracy by practicing on the QWERTY keyboard, which they were already familiar with, rather than learning a new system and trying to convince their employers to purchase all new typewriters.

The QWERTY keyboard layout is one invention created in an earlier time, and for a different machine, but still relevant today. From old, heavy manual typewriters, to modern-day touchscreen keyboards, QWERTY has been successfully able to maintain its relevance. By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. By Rupendra Brahambhatt. Follow Us on.