275 Prospect Street, PO Box 67, Norwood, MA 02062
781.762.6804 Phone | 781.762.0229 Fax

  • Home
  • The Qwerty Keyboard

The Qwerty Keyboard

Today's keyboard gets its name for the top 6 keys on the keyboard, Q-W-E-R-T-Y. It was invented in 1865 by Christopher Latham Sholes as a way to slow down typists. You see, his original invention, the typewriter, was set up in ABC order. Typists knew the keyboard so well and worked so quickly that they often jammed the keys.  This slowed down production. Sholes invented the QWERTY keyboard to prevent the jamming of keys.  There has been other keyboard inventions since then, however the QWERTY keyboard has become the standard throughout the world. People are so familiar with the setup that typists are just as fast now as they were in 1865. Click on the links below to learn more.

The Virtual Typewriter Museum

Christopher Sholes

This site provides information using PDF, visit this link to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader DC software.