Just how this came to be is a narrative that remains murky and – ironically – far from fixed. It's a story that offers insights into the sometimes unexpected pace of technological change, and one that's peopled by unsung inventors and obsessive tinkerers. It taps a fervent debate that most of us are oblivious to.
The earliest typewriters were cumbersome, moody machines but there was nevertheless an order to their keys that any English-speaking user could readily glean: they were arranged alphabetically. So why change this logical layout? Legend has it that Qwerty – known for the jabberwocky-style word formed by the first six letters of its top row – was dreamt up with the express purpose of slowing typists down. One character even lectures another about it in a Paulo Coelho novel.
In fact, the Qwerty layout was concocted to prevent keys from jamming – or at least, that's what most experts have tended to believe. The letters on a typewriter are affixed to metal arms, which are activated by the keys; on early models, if a lever was activated before its neighbour had fully come back down to rest, they would jam, forcing the typist to stop. Enter Christopher Sholes. Born in small-town Pennsylvania in 1819, Sholes was many things, including newspaper editor and Wisconsin state senator. He was also one of a team of inventors credited with building the first commercially viable typewriter. Having already tried to build machines for typesetting and printing numbers, Sholes' adventures in type began in 1867, when he read an article in Scientific American describing the Pterotype, a prototype typewriter invented by one John Pratt. The article sounded the death knoll for that "laborious and unsatisfactory" instrument, the pen, soon to be set down in favour of "playing on the literary piano".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @12:59AM
What is easier on the hands, thought?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday December 19 2016, @07:38AM
Yes, thought is easier on the hands, as it doesn't involve them at all. However we don't have the technology to convert thought into text directly.
The ordering of the keys on the keyboard doesn't really make much difference on the hands, as the unnatural position of the hands on the keyboard is dictated by the physical arrangement in rows, combined with the ten finger system that forces you to hold your hands in a position that your fingers can rest on the so-called home row. It is this unnatural position that causes problems. Ergonomic keyboards change this, typically without going away from the qwerty arrangement.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.