Did you know....?

Did you know that the Qwerty keyboard named for the first 5 letters on the top row of keys was invented by Christopher Sholes? Originally the letters on a typewriter were arranged alphabetically. The keys had a tendency to stick and jam if the typist was too fast, so Sholes invented this keyboard to show the typist down to eliminate these jams. Thomas Edison was the one to effectively eliminate the key clashes with his 1872 invention of the electric print wheel device, which later became the basis for teletype machines. Lucien Stephen Crandall invented the second typewriter in 1884 which typed on a cylindrical sleeve and used a "type shuttle" or a semi-curcular strip of hardened rubber (and later of light metal). In 1893 they typewriter used a type wheel and the Blickensderfer's keyboard. This "ideal" keyboard was the result of studying which keys were used most often, and placing the most used keys on the "home row". These 10 letters were capable of composing 70% of the words in the English language, thus making typists much, much faster. Why don't we use this faster keyboard now instead of the slower qwerty keyboard you ask? People do not like to change! They simply didn't want to learn a new way of doing things. Go figure!