Final answer:
The original Sholes and Glidden typewriter used the QWERTY keyboard designed by Christopher Sholes in 1867 to prevent jamming of mechanical arms and improve typing productivity.
Step-by-step explanation:
The original Sholes and Glidden typewriter, which was perfected in 1867 by Christopher Sholes, utilized the QWERTY keyboard. This keyboard layout was designed to increase typing efficiency by resolving the problem of mechanical arms jamming, which was common with alphabetical arrangements on early typing devices. Christopher Sholes, who was a newspaper publisher, collaborated with colleagues to develop this typewriter model that would later become the industry standard thanks to its effectiveness.
Communications technology, such as the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, greatly transformed American lives by providing new career opportunities and improving correspondence speed and neatness. Women, in particular, found new job opportunities in clerical work with the advent of these technologies. Notably, the QWERTY keyboard design of the Sholes and Glidden typewriter remains a standard even to this day, evident in modern keyboards and typewriters.