Why Aren’t Keyboard Letters in Alphabetical Order?

When you take a look at a keyboard, the first six letters on the top row give the name of the arrangement of seemingly random letters that we’re all used to using–the QWERTY keyboard. But why was it arranged in this way and not in simple alphabetical order? There is a popularly held belief on why it was done like this, but that belief could be wrong.

Christopher Latham Sholes patented his first typewriter in 1868. It looked like a piano and the letter keys were all in alphabetical order. He modified the key arrangement in 1873 and received a patent in 1878 for a new “Type-Writing Machine”, as it was known. This was the first time the QWERTY keys had been introduced, and are the same as we have today. But why did Sholes change his key layout from alphabetical to the QWERTY style?

The most popularly held theory is that Sholes changed the letter arrangement because when typists would strike the keys on the old layout, the keys would jam because the type bars striking the paper were close to each other. It’s usually stated that he fixed the problem by separating the most commonly used, two-letter combinations, such as “h-e” and “t-h”. It’s believed that James Densmore…