Aucb.516
fa.editor-p
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!C70:editor-people
Tue Feb 23 01:00:51 1982
[GILBERT at MIT-XX (Ed Gilbert): Re:  Moran's Comments]
>From Admin.JQJ@SU-SCORE Tue Feb 23 00:03:08 1982
[ Editor's note:  the previous message to editor-people (from
 decvax!duke!bsb@Berkeley) argues for one version of the history
 of the typewriter keyboard.  Since this subject appeared on
 editor-people several months ago, I thought I might resend a
 message sketching an alternative perspective.  /jqj ]
               ---------------

Mail-from: ARPANET site MIT-XX rcvd at 10-Dec-81 1630-PST
Date: 10 Dec 1981 1928-EST
From: GILBERT at MIT-XX (Ed Gilbert)
Subject: Re:  Moran's Comments
To: Guy.Steele at CMU-10A, editor-people at SU-SCORE
In-Reply-To: Your message of 9-Dec-81 2352-EST

I just want to comment on an aside you made in your message to
editor-people.  The QWERTY keyboard wasn't designed to slow people down.

I don't have my reference materials here so I must hedge the details, but
here is what really happened:

In about the late 1870's Glidden and Sholes were working on a typewriter
which would eventually evolve into the popular and long-lived Remington
line.  People operated the machine so quickly that the type bars would jam.
They needed an arrangement of the type bar "basket" in which common
sequences of two letters would have those two letters on opposite sides of
the basket.  In the most straightforward design of a manual typewriter this
would have a direct effect on the keyboard layout, but they were interested
in the type basket, not the keyboard.  The brother of one of the two men, a
high school principal, determined the arrangement.

I do not consider myself an expert on the history of the typewriter, but I
believe this to be true.  The only person I have talked to who has done a lot
of reading on the subject also feels that this is the correct story.

It would seem that if all other variables were fixed and we only addressed
the issue of whether two letter sequences appeared on the same or opposite
side of the keyboard, then putting them on opposite sides would allow for
faster typing.  Other factors, such as which fingers type which keys, were
probably not addressed at the time and may be the cause of the QWERTY
keyboard's being slower than some other designs.

Sorry for the long note about a minor point, but the myth that Glidden and
Sholes were trying to slow people down is rather widespread and I thought
people might like to hear the true story.

By the way, it appears that touch typing was an invention; it didn't always
exist.  Its merits, in fact, were quite vigorously debated.

                                       Ed Gilbert
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