Ever wondered why your keyboard doesn’t just flow alphabetically like your phone?
Christopher Latham Sholes, a newspaper editor and printer from Milwaukee, invented the QUERTY keyboard in 1873.
He started out with letters and numbers more or less in order along the lines of a piano keyboard.
However, when the user pressed neighbouring keys at close to the same time, the metal arms the characters were mounted on jammed together.
Chris separated commonly used letter-pairs (like ‘th’ and ‘st’) so they wouldn’t clash – a bit like a teacher with naughty children really.
After six years of trial and error, he arrived at something close to what we use today.
When Remington bought the manufacturing rights, their adjustments included placing the ‘R’ key where the full stop had been, so sales staff could impress customers by pecking out the brand name ‘TYPE WRITER’ from one keyboard row.
Isnt it so soothing to be able to ponder a little question from time to time. Its catching on I recon.
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