Fact · Typing and writing speed
1868year
In November 1868, Christopher Sholes changed the arrangement of the second half of the alphabet on his prototype typewriter, moving N to Z from right to left.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“In November 1868 he changed the arrangement of the latter half of the alphabet, N to Z, right-to-left.”
QWERTY (Wikipedia), Wikipedia, 2026, History section.
Open the original- What it measures
- The article describes Sholes making many trial-and-error rearrangements of an original alphabetical key arrangement before the 1873 layout.
- What it does not show
- The earliest prototypes used an alphabetical arrangement, so QWERTY was not planned from the start.