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QWERTY and the history
of keyboards
The modern computer keyboard traces its origin to
the invention of the typewriter by Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos
Glidden and Samuel W. Soule in September 1867. E. Remington &
Sons Arms Company produced the first typewriter in 1874.
One of the inventors, Sholes, discovered that many
English words frequently contained combinations of letters next
to each other in the alphabet, for instance, Deffect, High, etc.
With the help of Amos Desmore, a teacher, Sholes determined the
combinations and came up with the QWERTY (the arrangement of the
keys in the upper row) layout we use today.
In 1960 Digital Equipment introduces the first mini
computer, the PDP-1, for around R800,000. It was the first commercial
computer equipped with a keyboard and monitor.
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