Computer Lab

QWERTY refers to the arrangement of keys on a standard English computer keyboard or typewriter.  The name derives from the frist six characters on the top alphabetic line of the keyboard.

 

In 1874 Remington & Sons manufactured the first commercial typewriter, call the Remington Number 1.  This typewriter was designed by Christopher Sholes an dused the "QWERTY" keyboard we are all familiar with.

 

This early typewriter sed a mechanism with characters o nthe end of a bar.  WHen a key was struck, a linkage would swing the bar into a tape coated with ink.  Whenthe character struck the tape, the impression of the characer was transferred onto the paper.  Shole's original prototype had a problem with the bars colliding with each other and jamming.  So the story goes that he arranged the keys with the most common letters in hard to reach spots, to slow typist down and try to avoid this problem.

 

QWERTY is still the standard.

 

Both "pumpkin" and "minimum" can be typed with one hand on a QWERTY  keyboard -- give it a try!