Is the QWERTY keyboard origin really a myth?

Question

there's a blog that debunks the common story about the QWERTY keyboard. who's right?
http://yasuoka.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_yasuoka_archive.html
essentially, the author says 8-finger typing didn't even exist until years after the QWERTY keyboard was invented, so how could it have been developed to slow down typists. second good point: old keyboards are hard to punch, so did people really use more than a pecking method?

Answer 1

It wasn't designed to slow down typists.

Have you ever mashed keys on a typewriter? If you hit the keys where the 'hammers' are close together, the hammers and keys tend to jam.

QWERTY was designed so that keys that commonly get hit together or in quick succession are far apart. The letters t-h-e aren't right beside eachother.