now instead of making typewriters, remington makes electric shavers. smiles!
Chris W.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Trish" <[email protected]>
To: "bcf2" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2014 2:23 PM
Subject: [Best-circle-of-friends2] The first typewriter was introduced tothe
United States in 1868 by Christopher Latham Sholes.
The first typewriter was introduced to the United States in 1868 by
Christopher Latham Sholes. His first attempt to build a typing device
consisted of a crude and sluggish machine that was far from perfect. The
design used letters and characters on the ends of rods which were called
typebars. When a key was struck, the typebar would swing up and hit the
ink-coated tape which would transfer the image onto paper.
The original design of the keyboard positioned keys in alphabetical order
in
two rows. Makes sense, right? Well, this arrangement caused the typebars
of
the most commonly used combination letters of the alphabet (I e. T H and S
T) to be positioned close together, so when the keys were hit right after
the other with a speed faster than a snail, the keys would jam.
The attempt to solve this malfunction resulted in a rearrangement of keys.
In 1868, in collaboration with educator Amos Densmore, Sholes arranged the
letters on the keyboard for better spacing between popular keys used in
combination. The results was that this initially made it difficult for
people to find the letters they needed to type efficiently.
However, someone who mastered this new key arrangement would actually be
able to type faster because the keys wouldn't jam. This was the beginning
of
the QWERTY keyboard, which first appeared in 1872.
The first typewriter machine found its way on the market in 1874 through
Remington & Sons. The device was called the Remington No. 1. You're
probably
thinking it sold out in minutes since it was the latest and greatest
technological device to be mass-produced.
The truth is, most people ignored it. Sure, the machine still had some
quirks and Sholes had yet to figure out ideal customers for his invention,
but in the late 1870s, the idea of "mechanical writing" was just plain
strange for most people.
The accepted norm was to write letters in legible longhand and many people
found mechanical writing uncouth or even offensive. Sholes figured his
device would appeal to clergyman and men of letters first and then he'd
branch out to the general public; he didn't even consider its use in
business. All of these factors probably played a part in the typewriter's
initial lack of sales.
Four years later, after slight modifications to the arrangement of the
keyboard were made, Remington & Sons produced the new Remington No. 2
model.
The Remington No. 2 included the arrangement of keys we use today along
with
the ability to type both capital and lowercase letters by using the shift
key. The shift key received its name because it caused the carriage to
shift
position in order to type either a lowercase or capital letter which were
on
the same typebar. Although the shift key we use on our keyboards today
does
not cause the machine to shift mechanically, the name stuck.
As the typewriter rose in popularity, people stopped complaining about the
weird arrangement of keys and started memorizing the keyboard and learning
how to type efficiently. Although other alternate keyboards tried to break
onto the market, most people decided to stay with the QWERTY board, and
none
of the other type-writing machines proved successful.
One prominent attempt at a replacement keyboard occurred in the early
1930s
when Professor August Dvorak of Washington State University set out to
develop a more user-friendly keyboard. He ultimately redesigned the
keyboard
so all of the vowels and the five most commonly used consonants were
arranged on the home row (AOEUIDHTNS).
Although the design required a typist to frequently alternate hands to
type
most words, with the Dvorak keyboard, a person could type approximately
400
of the English language's most common words just by using the keys of the
home row, compared to 100 words on the QWERTY keyboard. In addition, using
the Dvorak keyboard, a typist's fingers would not have to travel as far as
they did on Sholes' keyboard to type the majority of words.
Dvorak set out to prove his machine superior to Sholes', but his keyboard
never caught on. Many of the studies used to test the effectiveness of his
keyboard were flawed or were deemed a conflict of interest since Dvorak
conducted them himself.
A U.S. General Services Administration study in 1953 of Dvorak's keyboard
determined it didn't matter which keyboard was used. Experienced typists
in
either keyboard typed at approximately the same speed, with variance based
more on their individual skill rather than either keyboard design being
superior to the other in a larger sample-size or words.
This ultimately killed the Dvorak keyboard as the majority of people
didn't
want to commit the time or resources it would take to be trained on a new
keyboard. Thus, the QWERTY keyboard persevered through today and
seemingly
will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
As Dr. Dvorak said, "Changing the keyboard format is like proposing to
reverse the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, discard every moral
principle, and ridicule motherhood."
- - -
to send a message to the group:
[email protected]
group owner:
[email protected]
The web page for users of your mailing list is:
http://lists.blindtech-list.info/listinfo.cgi/best-circle-of
-friends2-blindtech-list.info
List archives can be found at
mail-archive.com/
To join the group or unsubscribe or get help
[email protected]
to send a message to the group:
[email protected]
group owner:
[email protected]
The web page for users of your mailing list is:
http://lists.blindtech-list.info/listinfo.cgi/best-circle-of
-friends2-blindtech-list.info
List archives can be found at
mail-archive.com/
To join the group or unsubscribe or get help
[email protected]
