Qwerty keyboards - how did they become?

Bengaboy

Bengaboy

Bengaboy

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Just in bed browsing the web and was typing a webpage when I randomly thought, why the hell is the keyboard positioned like this?

Makes no sense to me to be fair, although Im sure there is a logic behind the madness! :p

Any you guys know?
 
Apparently they are not efficient at all, but they also cannot be replaced as the Universe as we know it uses qwerty ;)
They were originally created by a guy called Christopher Sholes, who sold it to Remington and was used on the first type writers. I guess they just grew from then on and cannot be replaced as everyone is used to them.
 
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It was so the letters on a typewriter didn't hit each other as you typed quickly as far as I know. technicall on a non-mechanical keyboard you can type faster with a different layout but it kind of stuck because people got used to it.
 
Part of the design was apparently intended to stop the arms on typewriters from jamming, by actually reducing the typist's speed.
 
Apparently its layout is designed such that typewriter operators couldn't type too quickly, by jamming the keys by getting the things tangled up. :o
 
I read that the reason the number pad on a keyboard is 'upside down' compared to a phone is that switchboard types were too quick at typing in the numbers and were making the machines play up, so they turned it upside down to slow them down, same as what they did with keyboards.
 
I spent ages changing a keyboard to dvorak once, but it was rubbish, you just can't undo years of qwerty. I've never been able to touch type, but i don't need to look at the keyboard.
 
What keyboard layout do the devices that the people in court use to write down everything thats being said? It must be some very efficient layout to keep up with whats being said, because i know that on a qwerty layout i can't keep up with a normal conversation.
 
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What keyboard layout do the devices that the people in court use to write down everything thats being said? It must be some very efficient layout to keep up with whats being said, because i know that on a qwerty layout i can't keep up with a normal conversation.
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It's called a Stenograph I think
 
I also had a quick look on wikipedia, a very odd thing indeed. 21 letter keys in total, with only 4 being vowels and there are 2 S keys, 2 R keys and 2 T keys :eek: :confused:

Typing record on it is 375 words per min!
 
I recall being told that the dvorak layout is more efficient than qwerty, but everyone got used to qwerty so it stuck.

Kinda like how Betamax was a superior format to VHS, but VHS did better with it's marketing and killed it off.
 
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