Final answer:
Christopher Sholes avoided typing jams by developing the QWERTY keyboard layout, which separated commonly used letter pairs to prevent typebars from sticking together.
Step-by-step explanation:
Christopher Sholes, concerned with the problem of typing jams in early typewriter designs, devised a solution through the QWERTY keyboard layout.
This was done in 1867 when Sholes perfected the typewriter which included the QWERTY layout. The arrangement of keys was intended to reduce the likelihood of jams by spacing out commonly used pairs of letters to prevent the typebars from sticking together. This innovation allowed for faster and more efficient typing, and the QWERTY layout is still widely used in keyboards today.