How did our current keyboards arrive at their configuration? Were the letters always in this order?
“The QWERTY keyboard itself was determined by the existing mechanical linkages of the typebars inside the machine to the keys on the outside. Sholes’ solution did not eliminate the problem completely, but it was greatly reduced. . The keyboard arrangement was considered important enough to be included on Sholes’ patent granted in 1878” http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/whyqwert.html In short the first usable typewriter used that arrangement of keys. QWERTY wasn’t effective and developed simply because of the mechanics involved. It is possible to reprogram keyboards and use some of the other keyboard configurations on the market.
