Revolutions in Communication
Obfuscation: QWERTY keyboard
Q W E R T Y U I O P { }
A S D F G H J K L : "
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The qwerty keyboard was designed in the 19th century with the express purpose
of slowing down typists who jammed their machines because they typed too quickly.
This is one of the classic cases of how seeking a solution to a short term process
can hamper the development of a whole technology.
The ordering had to do with the design of the first typewriters.
The striking surfaces were arranged in a semi-circle on the end of levers
attached to the keys. The striking arms on the left or right edge of
the semi-circle where horizontal, and the striking arms in the middle
were vertical with the rest varying around the semi-cicrcle from vertical
to horizontal.
As the striking arms became more horizontal they tended to bend more
due to wear and gravity and hence malfunction more often.
Additionally, the keys in the middle of the keyboard had a less
complex mechanical path from the key to the striking arm, which also
increased their reliability over the keys towards either edge of
the keyboard.
So the clever people designing the typewriter organized the keys so
the most popular characters, or what they believed to be the most
popular characters, were on the keys as near to the middle of the
keyboard as possible while also being on the most vertical striking
arms possible without unduly increasing the complexity of the machine.
In other words, they had two variables to work with. The need to be
on the most vertical striking arm possible, and the need to be
on a key with the least complex mechanical linkage to the striking
arm.
I had no sooner gotten this page up when I got the following response from our
head system engineer.
Care to quote your source on the reason behind the ordering of the keys
on the qwerty keyboard? (wizzard-I did give my reference: Typography &
Typesetting by Ronald Labutz)
Do you have anything to add? Can you give a source? If so sends your comments
to me. I will be the sole arbiter of comments that will be added, I'll
give higher priority to those with support.