Introduction

Last time I posted about QWERTY, I alluded to the ubiquity of the QWERTY layout. By default, laptop and phone keyboards come in the QWERTY layout, which they inherit from the typewriter. How, then, did the QWERTY layout become the standard for typewriters, and later keyboards? The answer comes down to business and education.

Business

In 1886, three former Remington employees purchased the typewriter business from Remington. Then in 1893, Seamans’ company merged with four other typewriter manufacturers to form the trust Union Typewriter Company. With the manufacturer of the Remington Standard machine biggest among the trust, and the trust biggest among the typewriters market, QWERTY, the layout of the Remington Standard machine, became the standard layout for typewriters.

Education

In 1881, the Young Women's Christian Association began to offer typewriting classes to young women. At the time, social expectations excluded women from the white-collar workforce. However, new vertically integrated corporations and transnational markets required a growing amount of paperwork. As one of the few occupations that allowed them to earn an independent income without sacrificing social standing, female typists accepted much lower pay than their male counterparts. The number of women earning their livelihoods through typing grew dramatically, as did the number of typing classes offered to women. These classes taught the most common layout, QWERTY, further cementing it as the standard layout.

Conclusion

You might notice the history of the QWERTY layout places little importance on human comfort. An industry of ergonomic keyboards reveals the pain caused by that history. And attempts to challenge the QWERTY layout, e.g. Dvorak reveal the QWERTY layout so ingrained it persists across languages and generations of technology. While I appreciate the convenience brought on by typing over handwriting, I also want to exercise technological and moral imagination in making typing more human.