Where did the Qwerty Keyboard Come From?

by Hava Lyon | More from this Blogger

16 Apr 2007 12:00 PM

In March, I wrote a blog about carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) but because of time constraints (okay fine, I'll admit it, I got distracted and forgot! :-P) I didn't write anything else on the subject. If you missed that blog, I would check it out--it has some very surprising truths in it regarding CTS which I'm willing to bet many people don't know. Or maybe I'm the only one who didn't know the true causes of CTS--that's a very good possibility.

Whatever the true causes of CTS, it behooves all of us to take good care of our bodies, and that includes not making it work harder than it has to. Which brings me to today's topic: The Qwerty keyboard. If you look down at the keyboard you're typing on right now, you'll see the top row spells out Qwerty from left to right. The Qwerty keyboard is the most popular keyboard in America, bar none.

Where did it come from though? Originally typewriters were arranged in an A to Z pattern. The top left corner started with A, and the bottom right corner ended with Z. Unfortunately, this set-up allowed typists to get too quick, which with typewriters was a problem. The arms would go up to strike the page and get stuck up there together, because the typists were too fast and had pushed too many keys at once. Manufacturers had to do something to slow typists down. They put together the Qwerty keyboard. It has been used ever since, although (almost) no one uses typewriters any longer.

I know it certainly didn't gladden my heart to find out that the Qwerty keyboard was purposefully put together to slow me down. It did, however, explain a lot. If the keys weren't going to be set up in an A - Z pattern (which would be your first instinct) then the only other logical way to set them up would be in a pattern that would help the typist type more efficiently, which the Qwerty keyboard most definitely does not do. E is the most used letter in the alphabet, and yet it isn't on the home row. "Th" is a very common keystroke combination (probably the most common one in English) and yet the two letters aren't next to each other, and can't even be hit by the same hand. Out of the five vowels in the English language (A, E, I, O, U) only one is on the home row--A. Yet almost every word in the English language needs at least one of those letters in it. Makes you want to just strangle the person who came up with this set-up.

Since we haven't mastered traveling back in time quite yet, I can only offer one piece of advice: Check the Dvorak keyboard out. Don't know what that is? Read on!

Learn more about Hava Lyon

Hello, my name is Hava or Havs (depending on my mood and yours!) I am a freelance writer who writes for several blogs, both paid ones such as this one, and personal blogs.

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