You will notice that the first six letters in a typical keyboard's top first row are “Q, W, E, R, T, and Y”. Even the most advanced and sophisticated word processors and computers support this type of keyboard layout. Now, have you ever wondered why the letters are not arranged alphabetically? The answer might surprise you.
QWERTY keyboard
The “QWERTY” keyboard layout first appeared in the 1860s. The design was patented by Christian Sholes, creator of the first modern typewriter, and a newspaper editor who lived in Milwaukee, United States. The first layout had the characters arranged alphabetically, set on the end of a metal bar that struck the paper when its key was pressed. However, fast typists had a problem with this layout because the letters that lay close together on the keyboard became entangled with one another. By using a study of letter pair frequency, Sholes was able to determine which letters would tend to clash into each other when typed in succession. He made sure that the type bars were hung at safe distances, so that the common letter pairs such as “TH” would not cause jamming when the letters were typed in succession. The “QWERTY” keyboard layout was the result of this study. And it's been more than 130 years since its design and invention.
The “QWERTY” has had some competition from other keyboard layouts. One is the Dvorak keyboard, created by Dr. August Dvorak, and educational psychologist at the University of Washington in the US. However, the Dvorak has failed to prove itself superior to “QWERTY”. Perhaps it doesn't really matter what keyboard we use. In the end, typing fast is but a skill that takes a lot of practice to master.
Dvorak keyboard
