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Keyboard

The modern computer keyboard traces its origin to the invention of the typewriter in September 1867 

A few key technological developments created the transition of the typewriter into the computer keyboard. The teletype machine, introduced in the 1930s, combined the technology of the typewriter (used as an input and a printing device) with the telegraph. Elsewhere, punched card systems were combined with typewriters to create what was called keypunches. Keypunches were the basis of early adding machines and IBM was selling over one million dollars worth of adding machines in 1931 

The Keyboard Is a Complex Device

The keyboard is a complex device; it typically possesses over 100 keys generating approximately 120 different symbols or control characters (not counting capitalized forms) and this makes it difficult to commit to memory the layout.

In the keyboard, the keys most frequently used, such as the letters, the numbers, the symbol keys and the standard function keys, such as Shift, Enter and Backspace, are in the "touch" area of the keyboard and account for most of the keystrokes the user makes. Special function keys, such as Esc key and the directional arrow keys, which are used less frequently, are in “non-touch” locations and require the user to move the hand away from the home position to strike them. 

The Non-sensical QWERTY Key Arrangement

To address this, Sholes had an ingenious idea. He discovered that many English words contained combinations of letters next to each other in the alphabet, for instance ABBey, DEFEct, HIGh, etc., which occurred frequently. With the help of a teacher called Amos Desmore, Sholes determined the combinations that occurred most frequently, split them and placed the component letters far away on the keyboard of his machine. And this is how the QWERTY layout was born. (The layout is referred to as “QWERTY” because of the arrangement of the keys in the upper row) 

Dvorak analyzed the English language to determine which letters were most frequently used. He then rearranged the keyboard layout so that these keys were positioned on the home row, that is, the row under the fingers of a typist in the rest position. By grouping the keys so that the most used keys were closest to the typist's fingers, reach was minimized and typing speed was increased.

The introduction of the Dvorak layout, despite its efficiency, was not successful because the QWERTY layout had become a de facto standard and no typewriter manufacturer wished to introduce a product that would require its users to have to retrain the manner in which they worked.