The invention of the modern computer keyboard can be traced back to
the invention of the typewriter.
In 1714, Henry Mill obtained a patent in Britain for a machine that, from the patent, appears to have been similar to a typewriter. In 1865, Rev. Rasmus Malling-Hansen of Denmark invented the Hansen Writing Ball, which went into commercial production in 1870 and was the first commercially sold typewriter; but did not become common in offices until after the mid-1880s. The typewriter quickly became an indispensable tool for practically all writing other than personal handwritten correspondence. It was widely used by professional writers, in offices, and for business correspondence in private homes. Although many modern typewriters have one of several similar designs, their invention was incremental, developed by numerous inventors working independently or in competition with each other over a series of decades.
In March 1873, Remington began production of its first typewriter. It had a QWERTY keyboard layout, which because of the machine’s success, was slowly adopted by other typewriter manufacturers. The first Remington typewriters even came with a foot pedal (just like sewing machines) to control carriage returns.
Acceptance of the typewriter was slow initially, but it was facilitated over the next several years by various improvements like: the shift key, which made it possible to type both capital and lower-case letters with the same keys (1878, in the Remington Model 2 typewriter); printing on the upper side of the roller (1880); the tab key, permitting the setting of margins (1897), etc. Thomas Edison patented an electric typewriter in 1872, but the first workable model was not introduced until the 1920s.
First computer keyboards were adapted from the punch card and teletype equipment. Herman Hollerith developed the first keypunch devices, which soon evolved to include keys for text and number entry similar to normal typewriters by the 1930s.
From the early 1940s until the late 1960s, typewriters were the main means of data entry and output for computing, becoming integrated into what were known as computer terminals.
In 1954 at MIT, researchers begin experimenting with direct keyboard input to computers. Until then, computer users fed their programs into a computer using punched cards or paper tape. Douglas Ross, a Teaching Assistant in the Mathematics Department, wrote a memo advocating direct access in the beginning of 1955. He believed, that a Flexowriter (an electrically controlled typewriter) connected to an MIT computer could function as a keyboard input device due to its low cost and flexibility. Thus in 1955 MIT’s Whirlwind, becomes the first computer in the world to allow its users to enter commands through a keyboard and confirmed how useful and convenient a keyboard input device could be.
With Video Display Terminals (VDT) technology and electric keyboards, the keyboard’s keys could now send electronic impulses directly to the computer and save time. By the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, all computers used electronic keyboards and VDTs. Nevertheless, the layout of the computer keyboard still owes its origin to the inventor of the first typewriter, and most notably, Christopher Latham Sholes who also invented the QWERTY layout.
The model M, produced by IBM and Lexmark starting in 1984, is the father of modern-day keyboard. It introduced separated numeric section, separated arrow keys, and the separate row of function keys. It is considered the most universal computer keyboard design and is still in use today.
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