Consider The QWERTY keyboard. It was primarily invented so flamboyant typewriter sales people can type TYPEWRITER in one motion demonstrations to wow potential customers. Read more here https://qr.ae/TW8Np4 In this lost 1943 film we can see a history of typewriters...pic.twitter.com/xVn4M2UkGq
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Replying to @BrianRoemmele
I thought this was an optimal layout to stop bars clashing on most commonly typed words?
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Replying to @richmorgans
Richard, thanks for asking “er” + “re” are the most used word parings in English. They are on the same bar. I cover that in the
@Quora posting listed.1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
They’re not on the same bar. They’re not even on two adjacent bars, at risk of clashing. E and R were two bars apart on the original typewriter. This is a common misconception; please see Neil Kay’s papers or e.g. http://widespacer.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-hidden-secrets-of-qwerty.html …, which specifically mentions this.
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Marcin, thank you. I have read this paper. However this is not what was in the first patents or in any of the Remington patents. Nor was this how the first QWERTY typewriters built. The big misconception is the reason the keyboard was invented simply was not mechanical.
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“Nor was this how the first QWERTY typewriters built.” This is simply not accurate – see Neil Kay’s papers that analyzed and proved this mathematically. Your Quora answer offers very limited citations on the relevant portions.
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Marcin, thank you. I have seen Neil’s work and it is wonderful. The reality is the bigram frequency, of which Sholes was aware of was rather high on many key combinations like re and er in which there is lock up. I have worked on Remington models where e & r are on the same bars.
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Please name them.
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Marcin, the antecedent to Sholes work on QWERTY is in this device. They made about 500 for telegraph operators. E and R are in the same bar. This was the “improved” version. Later on this model expanded on it.pic.twitter.com/KqT6z2vfHQ
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This is not even the same machine. The first photo is a 1873 prototype. The second one is a 1901 production model based on a *very* different type basket technology.
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Marcin, the device on the left is the design that prompted the QWERTY design. E and R are on the same bar. Why would that be if there was a mechanical reason for QWERTY? The device on the left was the final result of the testing in various designs. E and R are on the same bar.
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