Back in the 1860's, inventors were working on designs for the first production typewriters. These typewriters had mechanical linkages and a logical arrangements of keys, Wheel of Fortune style. These mechanical linkages had one major drawback: when keys of close proximity were pressed in succession, a jam of the linkages occurred, causing chaos and havoc. To remedy this, C.L. Sholes is attributed with the QWERTY (modern) keyboard design, which had keys that were most commonly pressed in succession moved away from each other.
