All of my typewriters use the QWERTY layout (as indeed do all of my computers). However, when and why was the QWERTY layout first set out? One urban myth is that it was designed to stop typists from going too fast and jamming their typewriters. This isn't strictly true though the layout was developed to help the Remington No. 1, the first commercially successful typewriter developed by Sholes and Glidden, to work properly.
Early prototypes of Sholes and Glidden's typewriter used piano like keys in four rows. These were set in alphabetical order. Due to the way the typebars were connected to a metal ring in this earliest of typewriters pressing adjacent keys (or letters) could cause jamming as the ring relied on gravity to return to the rest position. To solve this, letter analysis and trial and error was used to come up with a layout that would reduce the problem. Letters that frequently appear together in the English language like S and T were placed so they were connected to opposite sides of the ring.
However, the final layout developed by this analysis was not quite QWERTY. It was QWE,TY! R and , were swapped by the time the typewriter went on sale in 1874. Some say this is so salesmen could type TYPEWRITER just using the top row!
