Is there a certain reason why the letters on a keyboard are arranged the way they are? ex: ASDFGHJKL;'?

Question

Did some computer genius make it up or what?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Here is a basic history of the qwerty keyboard

Keyboard History
Standard Qwerty Keyboard Origin:
Late 1870's

In 1872, Remington produced the first mechanical typewriter, patented by C. Latham Sholes. Soon typists were going so fast that they were able to jam the keys which flew up to hit the typewriter ribbon. In the late 1870's: the "improved" Qwerty layout was designed to slow down typing, so those pesky keys would not jam anymore. Here is the speed trap we are stuck with today, 130 years later.
http://www.xpertkeyboard.com/history.htm

According to this website

The name "QWERTY" for our typewriter keyboard comes from the first six letters in the top alphabet row (the one just below the numbers). It is also called the "Universal" keyboard for rather obvious reasons. It was the work of inventor C. L. Sholes, who put together the prototypes of the first commercial typewriter in a Milwaukee machine shop back in the 1860's.
http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/whyqwert.html

Answer 2

The QWERTY design was patented by Christopher Sholes in 1867 and sold to Remington in 1873, when it first appeared in typewriters.

The QWERTY keyboard layout was devised and created in the 1860s by the creator of the first modern typewriter, Christopher Sholes, a newspaper editor who lived in Milwaukee. Originally, the characters on the typewriters he invented were arranged alphabetically, set on the end of a metal bar which struck the paper when its key was pressed. However, once an operator had learned to type at speed, the bars attached to letters that lay close together on the keyboard became entangled with one another, forcing the typist to manually unstick the typebars, and also frequently blotting the document. A business associate of Sholes, James Densmore, suggested splitting up keys for letters commonly used together to speed up typing by preventing common pairs of typebars from striking the platen at the same time and sticking together.

Answer 3

they are supposedly arranged by frequency of use. ie; the more frequently used letters are within easier reach for how your hands are positioned on the keyboard.

Answer 4

That "Computer Genius" was drunk while designing letter for keyboard. So we are stuck with it now.

Joking................

Answer 5

no its been around since manual typewriters .. its the qwerty layout ...