Question

The first typewriter had its letter on the end of rods called "typebars" If two typebars were near each other in the circle, they would tend to clash into each other when typed in succession. So, Sholes figured what?

Answer 1

Christopher Sholes invented the QWERTY keyboard to prevent typebars from clashing, a layout that became a crucial aspect in the development of typewriters and is still in use today. The Monotype and Linotype machines further advanced typesetting by automating the process, building upon the legacy of Gutenberg's movable type.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question references the development of the typewriter and how Christopher Sholes addressed the issue of typebars clashing against each other. To solve this problem, Sholes arranged the keys so that commonly used letter pairings were separated, which reduced the instances of clashes. This arrangement later became known as the QWERTY keyboard, which is still used in modern keyboards. The QWERTY layout was part of Sholes's effort to increase typing efficiency and is a key example of how inventions from the Industrial Revolution, such as the typewriter and the telephone, transformed communication and resulted in new job opportunities, especially for women who entered the clerical workforce.

Alongside the typewriter, other typing and typesetting inventions had a significant impact on communication, including the Monotype and Linotype machines. These machines automated the process of setting type and were widely used in the printing industry before the advent of photo typesetting in the 1950s. The development of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg in the fifteenth century was a precursor to these later innovations, revolutionizing the production of books by enabling the assembly of text using individual, reusable pieces of type.