Twice in the past week I've read scholars who should know better repeat the urban legend that the QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow down typing, and thus, jamming, on early typewriters.
That'd be cool if it were true, but it's not, and the the truth is even cooler. The QWERTY keyboard evolved over time, shaped by two forces: (1) since the early machines were used by telegraph operators, the keys were arranged to avoid common transcription errors; and (2) competing patents of the typewriter slightly arranged the keyboard layout in order to qualify as new (and therefore patentable) designs.
