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Keyboard History
Standard Qwerty Keyboard Origin:
Late 1870's
In 1872, Remington produced the first mechanical typewriter, patented by C. Latham Sholes. Soon typists were going so fast that they were able to jam the keys which flew up to hit the typewriter ribbon. In the late 1870's: the "improved" Qwerty layout was designed to slow down typing, so those pesky keys would not jam anymore. Here is the speed trap we are stuck with today, 130 years later.
Q W E R T Y U I O P
A S D F G H J K L ;
Z X C V B N M , . ?
In the Standard / Qwerty keyboard layout above, the most frequently used letters in English are shown in red: ETASORNI. How many common letters are at convenient inner finger locations on the middle row? None. Where is A? At the awkward left small finger location. Where are rarely used letters J and K? On prime real estate. No wonder it's slow: Alphabet soup.
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