WEBVTT - How does a QWERTY keyboard work?

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<v Speaker 1>Y dot com. Mosey It's always there. Welcome to brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff from how Stuff Works dot com where smart Happens.

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<v Speaker 1>Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, why are the

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<v Speaker 1>keys arranged the way they are on a quirty keyboard?

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<v Speaker 1>In eighteen seventy four, Remington and Sons manufactured the first

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<v Speaker 1>commercial typewriter, called the Remington Number one. This typewriter was

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<v Speaker 1>designed by Christopher Scholz and used the quirty keyboard we

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<v Speaker 1>are all familiar with. This early typewriter used a mechanism

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<v Speaker 1>with characters on the end of a bar. When a

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<v Speaker 1>key was struck, a link would swing the bar into

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<v Speaker 1>a tape coated with ink. When the character struck the tape,

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<v Speaker 1>the impression of the character was transferred onto the paper,

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<v Speaker 1>which was positioned behind the tape. Shul's original prototypes had

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<v Speaker 1>a problem with the bars colliding with each other and jamming,

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<v Speaker 1>so the story goes that he arranged the keys with

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<v Speaker 1>the most common letters in hard to reach spots to

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<v Speaker 1>slow type is down and try to avoid this problem.

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<v Speaker 1>It might seem odd that the keyboard layout that we're

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<v Speaker 1>using today, over a hundred years later, would be originally

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<v Speaker 1>designed for inefficiency, but nonetheless that seems to be the case.

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<v Speaker 1>Whatever the reason for the quarty layout, it seems pretty

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<v Speaker 1>unlikely that one of the first keyboard layouts invented would

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<v Speaker 1>be perfect, no matter what it looked like. The Corty

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<v Speaker 1>keyboard is therefore very different from the divorat keyboard, which

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<v Speaker 1>is trying to be super efficient. The divorat keyboard layout

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<v Speaker 1>tries to minimize the distance traveled by the fingers. It

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<v Speaker 1>also tries to make the typeest alternate hands on consecutive

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<v Speaker 1>letters as often as possible. The divorc lagout places all

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<v Speaker 1>of the most commonly used letters in the home rows

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<v Speaker 1>so that your fingers don't have to move at all

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<v Speaker 1>to hit these keys. The left hand has all the

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<v Speaker 1>vowels and some consonants, and the right hand has only consonants,

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<v Speaker 1>so there are very few words in the English language

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<v Speaker 1>that can be typed with only one hand on the

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<v Speaker 1>divorate keyboard. To our papaya and opaque. Both Pumpkin and

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<v Speaker 1>minimum can be typed with one hand on a Quarty keyboard.

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<v Speaker 1>Give it a try. You can find websites that show

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<v Speaker 1>the layout of the divorate keyboard and measure finger distances.

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<v Speaker 1>For example, if I had typed this article on a

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<v Speaker 1>divorate keyboard, my fingers would have traveled about thirty meters

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<v Speaker 1>versus the fifty four meters they traveled on a Quarty

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<v Speaker 1>key board that I used when I type this. Some argue, however,

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<v Speaker 1>that the divorat keyboard is no more efficient than a

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<v Speaker 1>Quarty keyboard. An independent study in nineteen fifty six showed

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<v Speaker 1>that Quarty type is and Divorac type has had about

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<v Speaker 1>the same rate of speed, and continued studies since then

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<v Speaker 1>don't show a clear winner between the two. This may

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<v Speaker 1>explain why Corty is still the standard. If you want

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<v Speaker 1>to see for yourself, you can switch your keyboard to

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<v Speaker 1>a divorc configuration just by changing a setting on your

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<v Speaker 1>computer's operating system. Depending on your keyboard, you may even

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<v Speaker 1>be able to pry off the keys and rearrange them

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<v Speaker 1>into the Divorac layout. Give it a try sometimes. Do

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<v Speaker 1>you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If

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<v Speaker 1>so please send me an email at podcast at how

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<v Speaker 1>stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands

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<v Speaker 1>of other topics, go to how stuff works dot com

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