QWERTY Keyboard
Nearly everyday most of us see and use an invention that hasn’t changed in nearly 150 years.
What is it? Ever heard of the QWERTY keyboard? Look at any keyboard, computer or cellphone, and on the left side of the top row of keys the first six letters will be QWERTY.
Christopher Sholes did not invent the typewriter or the keyboard, but he did perfect them in 1868. The first typewriting machine had a keyboard that was alphabetized from A to Z. This was a big problem. As the typist typed A, then B, the arms of the keys would hit each other and get jammed.
Sholes changed the keyboard to the QWERTY configuration so that common letters such as EARIOTNS were separated.
Viola! Soon afterwards, the Sholes keyboard was made standard on all typewriters and today we are still using the same keyboard configuration on cellphones and computer keyboards even though not necessary. Old habits are hard to break.
Which method of typing do your use? Are you the hunt and peck, two-fingered typist, or a speed typist using the touch typing technique, or a thumb typist?
Two long words can be typed with only your left hand, reverberated and abracadabra, and with only your right hand, lollipop and monopoly.
Most typists use their left hand 56 percent more than their right hand. How vexingly quick daft zebras jump! An English-language pangram using all the letters of the alphabet.
A couple of times I have been in Europe when I needed to send in my “Hello, Monticello.” This created quite a problem since keyboards in Europe are not in the same order as ours, plus they have some extra characters. The Q and the A swap places, Z and W are swapped also, just to name a couple. Without the abbreviations and English words on the keys, where the heck is the delete?
Even the period, comma and question mark are swapped around. Imagine the Chinese keyboard. Believe it or not, they use the QWERTY keyboard with options for various characters.
Enjoy your keyboard, its ampersand, apostrophe, asterisk, curly braces, forward and back slashes and carat only add to your fun as your fingers dance across the keys. Happy typing!