Unsung Patent Hero: Christopher Latham Sholes

We use this invention to write out and communicate our ideas, but most of the time the keyboard we type on for our computers and smartphones is overlooked. QWERTY is the standard keyboard layout for the Latin alphabet. The name originates from the first top row the keys. Today’s unsung patent hero is Christopher Latham Sholes, the inventor of the QWERTY keyboard  U.S. Patent No. 207,559.

Christopher Latham Sholes spent his early years as a newspaper publisher and politician serving as a Wisconsin State Senator in 1848. When he returned to the newspaper business later in his life, he wanted to make a machine that would number the pages. Working with Samuel W. Soule and Carlos Glidden the page numbering machine evolved into the first typewriter in the US with U.S. Patent No. 79,265 in 1868.

The typewriter machine the gained interest of Remington, a gun-manufacturing company, Sholes and Remington established a manufacturing agreement in 1873. During this time, Sholes noticed the typewriter had a flaw, it would get jammed if a user typed letters that were near each other on the keyboard too quickly, causing the type bars to become stuck. Sholes designed a work around to space out the most frequently used letters and emerged with the QWERTY keyboard in 1878.

The QWERTY keyboard layout was incorporated into over 100,000 Remington produced typewriters by 1890. Remington wanted to stay competitive and build customer loyalty to their typewriters, so the company taught training courses on typing, allowing users to be familiar with the QWERTY keyboard.

As time went on, Christopher Latham Sholes continued to work on improving the keyboard layout and described these improvements in the U.S. Patent No.568,630 in 1889. Eventually, the QWERTY keyboard was so commonplace that it became the universal standard for typewriters. With the transition to computers and smartphones, the QWERTY keyboard remains the standard, even though the device keyboards are not likely to jam. Christopher Latham Sholes’ QWERTY keyboard might not be the best layout for typing in the modern day, but his influence remains.

For more information please see: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/fact-of-fiction-the-legend-of-the-qwerty-keyboard-49863249/