Klarinet Archive - Posting 001219.txt from 1999/03

From: "Steven J Goldman, MD" <sjgoldman@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] re: QWERTY keyboard - why
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 23:51:59 -0500

I started reading this thread late, so if I am repeating what someone else
stated, my apologies. There was an article about the typewriter in
Smithsonian Magazine several years back. Interestingly enough, there was a
very specific reason behind keyboard design. It was neither accident or
stupidity. When the typewriter was introduced, it caused one hell of a
reaction from copyists. These were the people that hand wrote the business
correspondence at the time. They feared that the typewriter would take away
their jobs, and tried to stop the production of the new machine. The
original keyboards were much more reasonably designed, allowing typists to
produce documents far quicker than the copy people. To appease this group of
workers, the keyboard was redesigned with the most used letters in the most
difficult positions. This point was to slow down typing so the copyists
could compete! Apparently this is all documented somewhere. Anyone
interested can probably find the article by going through the Smithsonian
index.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Edwin V. Lacy [mailto:el2@-----.edu]
Subject: Re: [kl] re: QWERTY keyboard - why

On Mon, 22 Mar 1999, David Blumberg wrote:

> I saw an article that spoke of the qwerty keyboard, and why it was
> designed that way. As a circus stunt, the top line of the keyboard
> spells typewriter.

Actually, mine spells "typewriteroq[]"

Ed Lacy

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