Keyboard layout

Hi Blog,

Out of sudden, I have a thought when I looked at keyboard. I was wondering why keyboard is not arranged in alphabetical order? I have a good habit of do my research from the Internet and someone knows the reason behind this.

Firstly we have gone back to the past when typing started.
In the year 1874, a typewriter named Christopher Sholes who designed the "QWERTY" keyboard for Remington & Sons who manufactured the first commercial typewriter.

This is a Classic typewriter, GREATEST Invention!

This early typewriter used a mechanism with characters on the end of a bar. When a key was pressed, a linkage would swing the bar into a tape coated with ink and created an impression of the character will be transferred onto the paper, which was positioned behind the tape.

Just like Traffic Jam

In the earliest prototypes had a problem with the bars colliding with each other and jamming. So the designer arranged the keys to QWERTY order with the most common characters in hard to reach spots, to slow typists down and try to avoid this problem. but.... QWERTY is still not the perfect solution to the problem.

QWERTY layout

So there were actually another method to solve the situation, which is the Dvorak layout places all of the most commonly used letters in the home row so your fingers don't have to move at all to hit these keys. The left hand has all of the vowels and some consonants and the right hand has only consonants. So there are very few words in the English language that can be typed with only one hand on the Dvorak keyboard (two are "papaya" and "opaque"). Both "pumpkin" and "minimum" can be typed with one hand on a QWERTY keyboard -- give it a try.

VERY WEIRD for those who already used to QWERTY layout

But both method has no CONFIRMATION of which is better. An independent study in 1956 showed that QWERTY typists and Dvorak typists had about the same rate of speed, and continued studies don't show a clear winner between the two.
Now at least we learned that how keyboard layout history. I learn that we shouldn't take things for granted, even though current keyboard layout may not be the efficient solution for typing but at least, that designer or inventor had tried ways to make things work smoothly. Without them, our generation won't be able to enjoy such intelligent outcome.

Short video about typewriter

I love the sound from the typewriter

Kids react to typewriter

Learn more how they work

QWERTY VS Dvorak

History of Keyboard by videos

Great to see the typewriter SMILE

Jeff

Credit to this following websites:

• HowStuffWorks
• The Classic Typewriter Page