Evolution of QWERTY keyboard

Most of us today uses the qwerty keyboard for our pcs. Have you ever wondered why the keys are placed so? Well, the qwerty format is the direct adoption of the way letters were arranged in the typewriter by its inventor C. L. Sholes in the 1860's. In fact, many loathed his typewriter at first, even saying that the keys were misplaced purposefully by him to slow down fast typists. But there was a scientific reason behind it.

Sholes found out that arranging keys alphabetically lead to jamming and clash of the typewriter at times when they were used at a fair speed. The early typewriters had the letters on rods called typerods connected to the keys. The typebars hung in a circle and the roller onto which the paper was mounted sat over this circle. When a key was pressed, the typebar would swing and hit the paper from beneath. If two typebars used successively were near each other, then they would clash.

Sholes found out that rearranging letters, like T and H for example, in such a way that the corresponding typebars are kept at sufficient distances from each other would help solving the problem and thus came the QWERTY typewriter.

The first typewriter could type only capital letters. The problem was solved in the Remington no 2. typewriter, in which a shift key was introduced. The shift key mechanically shifted the carriages in such a way that only one letter( small letter or capital letter) would be
chosen to print from the impressions of the two made on the particular typerod. The modern keyboards do not make use of mechanical shifting, but still, shift keys are incorporated in them.