The computer keyboard needs no introduction. We all know that the keyboard is an input device used with the computer to aid in data input. Here are some trivia about computer keyboard.
1700 – 1800
Image:Henry Mill’s keyboard
The very first version closest to a keyboard was invented by a British Engineer Henry Mill. However, Mill’s invention didn’t manage to survive in society.
1800 – 1900
Image: Christopher Sholes`s QWERTY layout keyboard
Christopher Latham Sholes a newspaper publisher and politician from Wisconsin (US) came with his upgraded version of the typewriter. It was the very first version of QWERTY layout.
Sholes’ main reason behind this layout invention was to prevent ribbon damage in the keyboard/typewriter. Even with his invention undergoing numerous trials of modification; Sholes’ invention became a commercial success during 1870
1900 – Present
Image: ENIAC Computer
Between 1940’s and 1950’s the earlier versions of computers (ENIAC, BINAC, and UNIVAC etc.) used the QWERTY keyboard layout invented by Sholes.
It was in the 80’s IBM set the keyboard to its glory by inventing the Model M which looked 90% similar to modern day keyboards.
Since then the keyboard kept evolving more and more giving its various forms of layout co-in siding well with the society’s languages; going from QWERTY to Dvorak Simplified layouts.
Interesting Fact
During the early 1800’s, an Italian inventor Pellegrino Turri invented a typewriter for his blind lover Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano. Their story became one of 2010’s novel “The Blind Contessa’s New Machine”.
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