Who Invented the QWERTY Keyboard
If you take a look at the first 6 letters on the top line of your keyboard and you will mostly likely see QWERTY. This is the most commonly used arrangement of keys in keyboards today. In fact, we are so familiar with this combination that it is used on many other devices as well. If you have ever wondered who came up with this combination, keep reading to find out.
Who invented the QWERTY keyboard?
The QWERTY keyboard layout was first designed for use with a typewriter, known as the Sholes and Glidden typewriter or Remington No. 1. The layout was designed by Milwaukee newspaper editor, Christopher Latham Sholes in the early 1870’s. It is often said that this design was used to slow the typist down, but it was actually arranged to prevent the keys of the typewriter getting jammed. Keys that were commonly used together, such as st or th, were placed further apart to avoid the keys jamming. Sholes took a long time to come up with the best layout and some experts believe that he actually studied letter-pair frequency to find the perfect combination.
When computers were invented the QWERTY layout became the standard keyboard design. New keys were added for the special functions of a computer, but the alphabetical layout remained the same.
Did you know?
It has been shown many times that there are more efficient keyboard layouts than the current QWERTY system. However, people are so used to the QWERTY keyboard that it would be almost impossible for another layout to succeed.
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