These are only really mysterious keys if you live in somewhere like the UK perhaps but my Triumph-Adler Tippa has some keys for use in German language typing. The extra language keys mostly use the keys often used for fractions on other typewriters. The typewriter also does not have a QWERTY layout as Z and Y have been swapped (so it is a QWERTZ typewriter instead!) It would be nice to add some more non-English typewriters to the collection.
If we may talk about computers for a moment, when you press the return or enter key on a computer keyboard you are commonly inserting a new line into a document and returning the cursor to the start of that new line. This is represented in the PC DOS world as a carriage return followed by a line feed or ⬐.
However, on a typical computer keyboard (an example from my Macbook shown below) the logo on the enter key shows a line feed followed by a carriage return. So, why is there this difference? The answer is of course: typewriters! On a mechanical typewriter you would typically move to the next line before returning the carriage ready for the next line using the Line Space or Carriage Return Lever (the name seems to vary depending on the manufacturer). So, even if you do not use typewriters anymore in your normal day, you can still be reminded of the technology now and then.
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!
