Sholes was a mechanical engineer who invented the first practical modern typewriter, patented in 1868. Sholes invented the typewriter with partners S. W. Soule and G. Glidden, that was manufactured (by Remington Arms Company) in 1873 .
Perhaps the most attention paid
to the keyboard as a human interface was by IBM in 1984, and was in regard
to the compatibility of the layout of the Personal Computer that it had just
developed with the layout of the Selectric typewriter. The Personal Computer
had no jamming problems and its keyboard could handle even the fastest typist.
Therefore the issue of separating the keys did not pose itself.
Moreover, no attention seems to have been paid by IBM to the fact that the newly developed
Personal Computer was going to be used primarily by people with little or no typing skills and to whom
therefore the issue of the "QWERTY legacy" was unimportant.
Because of this, IBM could have redesigned the layout of the Personal Computer
keyboard to a more ergonomic and user friendly layout. Unfortunately, IBM
missed this wonderful opportunity and so it is that a keyboard layout designed
over a century ago, for a different technological situation, is in use on
over 500 million computers today
see also:
typing