We use keyboards every day, be it our desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. But, have you ever wondered why the keyboard is not arranged in alphabetical order? What led to the QWERTY keyboard design? Well, the reason is connected to the history of the typewriters.
The arrangement of keys in a keyboard that we use today is nearly a century and half old. In earlier days these typewriters had the keys arranged in alphabetical order. However, it was later discovered that the people typed so fast that the mechanical character keys got jammed very easily with this arrangement.
To prevent this, the keys were randomly positioned so that the weaker fingers were needed more frequently. This meant that people typed at a speed which the machine could handle. As a result, the ‘QWERTY’ keyboard came into existence that we find and use today.
The recognized problems of the old typewriters made the invention of QWERTY keyboard layout possible. Christopher Sholes, a newspaper editor who lived in Milwaukee, invented it for Sholes and Glidden typewriter. The layout design was later sold to Remington in 1873. The keyboard arrangement slowed down the speed of users, and that’s why the layout is still accepted in the whole world.
After QWERTY keyboards were widely accepted, Dr. August Dvorak and Dr. William Dealey patented Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout. It is claimed to reduce the distance traveled by the fingers for reaching letters easily. This was made to allow fast typing possible.
