Fact 153: Is there an English word that doesn't have a Q followed by a U?

Fact 153: Is there an English word that doesn't have a Q followed by a U?

The answer is yes, otherwise this would be a very short fact, the word is QWERTY and it is a name given to the standard UK keyboard this is because the first six letters are Q, W, E, R, T and Y the keyboard layout was designed by the American inventor, Christopher Latham Sholes.

Christopher Latham Sholes invented the first practical typewriter and the order he chose for the first 6 letters were QWERTY and so the keyboard is called a QWERTY keyboard.

 

Sholes was the first inventor to create a practical typewriter.

Sholes invented his typewriter in September 1867, however, the patent was only issued in June 1868. Sholes' first commercial model was manufactured in 1873 and was mounted on a sewing machine stand made by Remington & Sons (their surname is Glidden) who were at the time known for manufacturing sewing machines, Sholes and, Remington & sons began production of Sholes a

& Glidden typewriter on March 1, 1873, the typewriters had written on them, The Sholes & Glidden Type-Writer -patented- manufactured by Remington & Sons.

When Christopher Latham Sholes was experimenting early on in the designing process for his keyboard, with different layouts. Sholes realized that the levers in the typewriter would jam when he arranged the (letter) keys in alphabetical order, to solve this problem he rearranged his keyboard to prevent the typewriter levers from frequently jamming, and Sholes prevented this problem more by spacing out commonly used letter keys.

The keyboard layout wasn't chosen to slow down typers however it was in fact to make it more efficient because by using the QWERTY keyboard layout the typewriter was less likely to jam.