A Gun Company Standardized Your Keyboard's Layout - Input Origins #14

Before keyboards became the main way people interacted with computers, the QWERTY layout began as a solution to a mechanical problem. Early typewriters could jam when nearby letter bars were pressed too quickly, so Christopher Latham Sholes separated commonly paired letters.

Remington, better known for manufacturing firearms and sewing machines, mass-produced the design and helped turn QWERTY into the standard. The same layout later moved from typewriters to teleprinters, computer terminals, personal computers, and smartphones.

What began as a workaround for metal type bars became one of the most widely used interfaces in history. It is a short look at how the keyboard transformed writing into digital input while keeping a layout created more than 150 years ago.

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Welcome back to Input Origins, our monthly look at how humans control technology.

A short look at the input device that added the missing dimension to digital control.

Input Origins is published on the last Thursday of every month.

Series editor: Ariel Amar

Link: https://mudra-band.com/blogs/input-origins/input-origins-when-a-gun-company-standardized-your-keyboards-layout