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The Invention of the Typewriter
. The invention of the modern computer keyboard began with the invention of the typewriter. Christopher Latham Sholes patented the typewriter that we commonly use today in 1868. The Remington Company mass marketed the first typewriters starting in 1877.
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Invention of Teletype Machine
The teletype machine combined the technology of the typewriter with the telegraph. Elsewhere, punched card systems were combined with typewriters to create what was called keypunches. Keypunches were the basis of early adding machines. Early computer keyboards were first adapted from the punch card and teletype technologies.
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Binac Computer Used Electromechanically Controlled Typewriter
In 1948, the Binac computer used an electromechanically controlled typewriter to both input data directly onto magnetic tape (for feeding the computer data) and to print results. The emerging electric typewriter further improved the technological marriage between the typewriter and the computer.
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Invention of Video Display Terminals
. By 1964, MIT, Bell Laboratories and General Electric had collaborated to create Multics that encouraged the development of a new user interface, the video display terminal. The video display terminals (VDT) combined the technology of the cathode ray tube used in televisions and electric typewriters. Computer users could now see what text they were typing on their display screens.
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Invention of First Keyboard
The first keyboards sold in the 1970s were all built from scratch, piece by piece, and were heavy as they were fully mechanical. Since so much time and effort was needed to create these keyboards, and since the target market was primarily computer programmers and engineers, they were built for function and not for visual aesthetics. This meant there wasn’t a keyboard cover or cabinet.
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Keyboards Built Into Personal Computers
Keyboards were built into personal computers in the mid-1970s There was no way to save data. The keyboard was a set of key switches on the front panel of the computer. If users wanted a standard keyboard, IBM sold a converted electric typewriter, but many users converted their own electric typewriters to enter programming code. A second keyboard had to be connected for data entry.
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Keyboards Sold With Computers
. In the late 1970s Apple, Radio Shack and Commodore all had the foresight to see the large market in computer keyboards, and started manufacturing keyboards for their computers, paving the way for the modern assumption that all computers come with a keyboard, and that keyboards are the primary, standard input device. Link text -
Model M Keyboard
In 1986, IBM PC's came equipped with the Model M keyboard, which was easy to use. Users didn’t have to convert their typewriters or provide their own build of keyboard. The Model M was a mechanical keyboard. The Shift” and “Enter” keys were reportedly too small. Because of this, IBM made and sold “Keytop Expanders” which fit over the shift and enter key-switches to expand the keys.
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Membrane Switches Replace Mechanical Key Switches
In the 1990s membrane switches replaced the mechanical key switch. Membrane keyboards were much cheaper to produce. Unfortunately the quality of the keyboard significantly dropped as these superficial keyboard aesthetics dominated (slimmer, quieter, lighter weight, easier to be mobile with). keyboards (1983), and decades later the modern non-mechanical Apple keyboards (2010).
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Keyboards of the Future
Other changes in keyboard design, whether or not improving upon function, have included the folding keyboard, the water-proof (and washable) keyboard, the keyboard that also functions as a mouse, thumb-sized keyboards (for mobile devices and travel) and virtual touch-screen keyboards.
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