This editorial tells the history of the layout under your fingers: why the letters are where they are, how touch typing began, and why no rival has replaced it in 150 years.
What makes this passage demanding
- Proper names.
Christopher Latham Sholes, E. Remington and Sons, Frank McGurrin, Cincinnati and Dvorak all need capitals in the right places. - Dates and model numbers.
1860s, 1873, 1878, 1888, 1936 and No. 2. Read each one before you type it. - Single capital letters. Part 1 lists
Q, W, E, R, T and Y. Use the opposite Shift key for each. - An initial with a full stop.
E. Remington — the full stop belongs to the initial, not the end of a sentence.
The history, briefly
Early typewriter prototypes in the late 1860s used a roughly alphabetical layout. Because neighbouring typebars could jam when struck in quick succession, Sholes gradually rearranged the keys. The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, built by Remington, went on sale in 1874, and the Remington No. 2 of 1878 added the shift key.
Part 7 describes the 1888 Cincinnati contest won by Frank McGurrin, who typed with all ten fingers without looking — the method this course teaches. Once offices and typists had standardised on QWERTY, the layout reinforced itself, and even the Dvorak keyboard of 1936 could not displace it.
How to practise it
Slow down slightly for every name and figure, then return to your rhythm. Errors in this passage cluster around capitals and numbers, not ordinary words.
Practice notes
The closing point is worth taking to heart: skill matters far more than layout. A touch typist can sit at almost any keyboard in the world and begin work at once.