It’s hard to imagine a device more ubiquitous in the workplace than a keyboard. Even before the invention of the business computer or the personal computer, there were electric typewriters. And prior to that, manual typewriters. For over 300 years, keyboards have existed in one form or another.
This article will explore the origins of keyboards in general, as well as the invention of the QWERTY layout that most English language keyboards use today. By the end of it, we hope to answer every facet of the age old question: Who invented keyboards?
Though there have been writing machines that used pressure plates, dials, and other mechanisms in the past, it’s quite possible that the first keyboard-related patent came about in the early 18th century.
Back in 1714, Henry Mill obtained a patent for an early typewriter, though it is unknown if a prototype was ever fully fleshed out. The patent covered: “An apparatus for impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one after another, so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print, very useful in settlements and public records."
But that was all. There was no description of the intended mechanism, and there was no drawing of the proof of concept. If Henry Mill did anything more than the minimum required for a patent at the time, his efforts were lost to the ages. None of his tinkering from the time survived, at least.
Although several devices emerged that might have been inspired by Mill’s patent, or born from a similar idea, none found any kind of commercial success or widespread acclaim. The first device to be well documented and prototyped was the ‘cembalo scrivano’.
The cembalo scrivano was a lifetime effort of Italian inventor Giuseppe Ravizza. It is fully described and illustrated in his 1855 patent. And of course it included a keyboard… of sorts. It used piano-like keys to enact the levers. Sixteen different versions came to light over the next forty years of his life, each one a theoretical improvement on the last.
If invention must include documentation, prototyping, and defending one’s work, then the question of who invented keyboards might have its answer in Ravizza. But to say that the designs were primitive, at least for the keyboard portion, might be an understatement.
Within the same decade, two keyboards saw mass market success, an ocean away from one another. The first was created by Rasmus Malling-Hansen of Denmark. It was called the Hansen Writing Ball, invented in 1865 and mass produced in 1870.
This was the first keyboard that had small, individually marked keys meant to be depressed by a fingertip. It could be considered the first electric typewriter, powered by a 10 or 12-cell battery. Every time a key was depressed, the carriage would move a fixed amount, making typing a more fluid process. Eventually the rounded shape of the paper was replaced by a flat sheet, and a mechanical escapement was added to do away with the need for electricity.
Over in America, the Sholes and Glidden typewriter was being produced.
Designed in 1866, it had a rocky road to market. After ownership changing hands several times, mass production stated in 1873. It sported a proper keyboard, a clockwork escapement for advancing the carriage, and eventually standardized letter and line spacing.
If one considers the four row QWERTY design to be a hallmark of the modern keyboard, they have Christopher Latham Sholes to thank. It was his late improvement to the base model in 1873 that came up with that particular configuration. The one and zero keys were missing, as they could be emulated with a capital ‘I’ and ‘O’ easily enough. So when asking who invented keyboards, or at least modern keyboards, his name deserves a mention.
Eventually, the Remington No. 2 model typewriter introduced upper and lower case letters, and added the zero and one keys. Its layout was almost identical to the compact keyboards seen today.
That covers the keyboards that could print to paper, but what about the keyboards that provided electronic input?
The BINAC mainframe computer designed by the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation in 1949 has to be one of the first candidates, though several smaller or boutique projects may have existed prior without extensive documentation.
The BINAC used an electro-mechanical typewriter that took input and imprinted it directly onto a magnetic tape. Because the device was going right to the Northrop Aircraft Company, everything was well documented. It even had a user manual, since EMCC employees weren’t allowed on site due to security concerns.
It was a colossal failure. Apparently the Northrop team reassembled the machine incorrectly, and it never functioned the way it should have. When sent back to the EMCC lab to be rebuilt, it once again functioned as intended.
So as far as who invented keyboards that communicated strictly electronically, that would be the fine folks over at the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Even if they weren’t fully appreciated at the time.
After typing to an electronic medium was cracked, computer keyboards rapidly became more sophisticated. And importantly, more suitable for home use.
The Olivetti Programma 101 was a printing programmable calculator that had a pretty good keyboard. Being compact and available at a relatively low cost, NASA was one of the first early adopters. From there it made its way into the homes of many accountants, engineers, and hobbyists.
But it was the Datapoint 2200 that most resembled what we think of as a home computer with a functional keyboard.
The Datapoint 2200 was designed by Computer Terminal Corporation and started shipping in 1971. It had a built-in full-travel keyboard. The technology would eventually be the inspiration for x86 architecture, and the keyboard would inspire the more affordable, compact home computers produced in 1977 by Apple, Commodore, and Tandy.
One can answer the question of who invented keyboards in many different ways, depending on the context. But the roots of our modern, ergonomic, mechanical keyboards go all the way back to the 1700s. Generations helped to perfect the digital marvels that we have today. From the humble cembalo scrivano, all the way up to the ultra modern Riven, let’s take a moment to appreciate the effort that went into making the lives of typewriter and computer users better and easier throughout the ages.
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