Pop quiz: what common 10-letter word is composed of letters found on the top letter line of a typewriter? … While “repertoire,” “perpetuity” and “proprietor” solve the riddle, the clever response to this little word puzzle is “typewriter.”
Of course, this answer is dependent on using the QWERTY keyboard. (So called because QWERTY form the first six letters on the top letter row.) But why do we have this configuration in the first place? After all, it’s not as if the keyboard was designed to accommodate a specific typing technique — at its inception in the 19th century, typing hadn’t been invented.
While the earliest typing devices date back to the 1750s, the first with a key for every character arise in the 1860s, when Christopher Latham Sholes – a Wisconsin politician, newspaper publisher and amateur inventor — created various machines to make his enterprises more efficient. One such invention was an early typewriter, which he developed with Samuel W. Soul, James Densmore and Carlos Glidden, and first patented in 1868.
This early keyboard resembled a piano and was built with an alphabetical arrangement of 28 keys. The developers believed this was most efficient, as everybody knew the order of letters in the alphabet. So why was the QWERTY keyboard developed?
The standard theory asserts that Sholes redesigned the keyboard in response to mechanical failings. The metal arms connecting the key and the letter plate hung in a cycle beneath the paper. If a user quickly typed a succession of letters whose type bars were near each other, the delicate machinery would get jammed. The solution was to redesign the arrangement to separate common sequences, such as th, st or on.
This theory is suspect, given that er is one of the most common letter pairings in the English language and the letters e and r adjoin on a QWERTY keyboard. Interestingly, one of the prototypes had a slightly different keyboard that was only changed at the last minute. If it had been put into production, we might now be discussing a QWE.TY keyboard.
In any event, by 1873 the typewriter had 43 keys and an arrangement that was designed to prevent these expensive machines from jamming. That same year, the Sholes consortium entered into an agreement with gun and precision machinery manufacturer Remington, which after the Civil War was trying to adapt to a peacetime economy. But right before their machine went into production, Sholes filed another patent, which included a new keyboard arrangement. Issued in 1878, it marked the first documented appearance of the QWERTY layout.
The deal with Remington proved to be an enormous success. By 1890, there were more than 100,000 Remington-produced QWERTY typewriters in use across the US. The fate of the keyboard was entrenched when the five largest typewriter manufacturers – Remington, Caligraph, Yost, Densmore and Smith-Premier merged in 1893 to form the Union Typewriter Co., which agreed to adopt QWERTY as the standard.
While the partnership with Remington helped popularize the QWERTY system, its development as a response to mechanical error has been questioned. A 2013 article entitled “Fact of Fiction? The Legend of the QWERTY Keyboard,” written by Jimmy Stamp on Smithsonian.com points out that researchers at Japan’s Kyoto University concluded in 2011 that the mechanics of the typewriter did not influence the keyboard design. Rather, the researchers posit that telegraph operators found the alphabetical arrangement unclear and inefficient for translating Morse code. The Kyoto analysis suggests that the keyboard evolved over several years as a result of input provided by these telegraph operators.
In this scenario, the typist preceded the keyboard. The Kyoto research also cites the Morse lineage to further debunk the theory that Sholes wanted to protect his machine from jamming by rearranging the keys in order to slow down typists
Sholes himself wasn’t entirely convinced that QWERTY was the best system. Although he sold his designs to Remington early on, he continued to tinker with advancements to the typewriter for the rest of his life, including several keyboard layouts that he determined to be more efficient. In fact, he filed a patent in 1889, a year before he died, that was issued posthumously.
So why do we persist with the QWERTY layout? I suppose the answer is simply because by now so many people know its sequences so well and can type without even having to look at the individual keys. Adopting a different layout would be tantamount to learning a new language.
Howard Richler’s book Wordplay: Arranged & Deranged Wit was published in April 2016.
Of course, this answer is dependent on using the QWERTY keyboard. (So called because QWERTY form the first six letters on the top letter row.) But why do we have this configuration in the first place? After all, it’s not as if the keyboard was designed to accommodate a specific typing technique — at its inception in the 19th century, typing hadn’t been invented.
While the earliest typing devices date back to the 1750s, the first with a key for every character arise in the 1860s, when Christopher Latham Sholes – a Wisconsin politician, newspaper publisher and amateur inventor — created various machines to make his enterprises more efficient. One such invention was an early typewriter, which he developed with Samuel W. Soul, James Densmore and Carlos Glidden, and first patented in 1868.
This early keyboard resembled a piano and was built with an alphabetical arrangement of 28 keys. The developers believed this was most efficient, as everybody knew the order of letters in the alphabet. So why was the QWERTY keyboard developed?
The standard theory asserts that Sholes redesigned the keyboard in response to mechanical failings. The metal arms connecting the key and the letter plate hung in a cycle beneath the paper. If a user quickly typed a succession of letters whose type bars were near each other, the delicate machinery would get jammed. The solution was to redesign the arrangement to separate common sequences, such as th, st or on.
This theory is suspect, given that er is one of the most common letter pairings in the English language and the letters e and r adjoin on a QWERTY keyboard. Interestingly, one of the prototypes had a slightly different keyboard that was only changed at the last minute. If it had been put into production, we might now be discussing a QWE.TY keyboard.
In any event, by 1873 the typewriter had 43 keys and an arrangement that was designed to prevent these expensive machines from jamming. That same year, the Sholes consortium entered into an agreement with gun and precision machinery manufacturer Remington, which after the Civil War was trying to adapt to a peacetime economy. But right before their machine went into production, Sholes filed another patent, which included a new keyboard arrangement. Issued in 1878, it marked the first documented appearance of the QWERTY layout.
The deal with Remington proved to be an enormous success. By 1890, there were more than 100,000 Remington-produced QWERTY typewriters in use across the US. The fate of the keyboard was entrenched when the five largest typewriter manufacturers – Remington, Caligraph, Yost, Densmore and Smith-Premier merged in 1893 to form the Union Typewriter Co., which agreed to adopt QWERTY as the standard.
While the partnership with Remington helped popularize the QWERTY system, its development as a response to mechanical error has been questioned. A 2013 article entitled “Fact of Fiction? The Legend of the QWERTY Keyboard,” written by Jimmy Stamp on Smithsonian.com points out that researchers at Japan’s Kyoto University concluded in 2011 that the mechanics of the typewriter did not influence the keyboard design. Rather, the researchers posit that telegraph operators found the alphabetical arrangement unclear and inefficient for translating Morse code. The Kyoto analysis suggests that the keyboard evolved over several years as a result of input provided by these telegraph operators.
In this scenario, the typist preceded the keyboard. The Kyoto research also cites the Morse lineage to further debunk the theory that Sholes wanted to protect his machine from jamming by rearranging the keys in order to slow down typists
Sholes himself wasn’t entirely convinced that QWERTY was the best system. Although he sold his designs to Remington early on, he continued to tinker with advancements to the typewriter for the rest of his life, including several keyboard layouts that he determined to be more efficient. In fact, he filed a patent in 1889, a year before he died, that was issued posthumously.
So why do we persist with the QWERTY layout? I suppose the answer is simply because by now so many people know its sequences so well and can type without even having to look at the individual keys. Adopting a different layout would be tantamount to learning a new language.
Howard Richler’s book Wordplay: Arranged & Deranged Wit was published in April 2016.
