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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Replying to @mwichary @BrianRoemmele and
I just looked at close-ups of both, and again – E and R are not on the same bar (how would that even work!?), or even on adjacent bars. In the first one, E is next to O and N. In the second one, E is surrounded by X and D.
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Replying to @mwichary @BrianRoemmele and
I’m sorry, but I’m not interested in a further discussion with someone who treats history so carelessly and cavalierly.
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Marcin, sorry you feel this way. I rigorously research everything I write about. It is usually vetted by 1000s of folks like yourself. Over the years I have been named top writer
@quora from 2013-2019 based on the accuracy of my research and data. I stand by what I write.1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
I apologize for my tone earlier today. I disagree with many parts of your article, but I should’ve approached this differently and with more grace and thoughtfulness. I’m sorry.
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Marcin, it’s ok. I understand. I really appreciate the interaction.
0 replies 0 retweets 1 likeThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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