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the Remington typewriter hit the market, with the earliest version of what would become the keyboard layout we still use today. The original 1873 Sholes and Glidden typewriter.
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The teletype machine combined the technology of the typewriter with the telegraph. Elsewhere, punched card systems were combined with typewriters to create what was called keypunches. Keypunches were the basis of early adding machines. Early computer keyboards were first adapted from the punch card and teletype technologies.
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In 1948, the Binac computer used an electromechanically controlled typewriter to both input data directly onto magnetic tape (for feeding the computer data) and to print results. The emerging electric typewriter further improved the technological marriage between the typewriter and the computer.
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Keyboards were built into personal computers in the mid-1970s There was no way to save data. The keyboard was a set of key switches on the front panel of the computer. If users wanted a standard keyboard, IBM sold a converted electric typewriter, but many users converted their own electric typewriters to enter the programming code. A second keyboard had to be connected for data entry.
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In the late 1970s, Apple, Radio Shack, and Commodore all had the foresight to see the large market in computer keyboards and started manufacturing keyboards for their computers, paving the way for the modern assumption that all computers come with a keyboard and that keyboards are the primary, standard input device.
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In the 1990s membrane switches replaced the mechanical key switch. Membrane keyboards were much cheaper to produce. Unfortunately, the quality of the keyboard significantly dropped as these superficial keyboard aesthetics dominated (slimmer, quieter, lighter weight, easier to be mobile with). keyboards (1983), and decades later the modern non-mechanical Apple keyboards (2010).
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In 1986, IBM PC's came equipped with the Model M keyboard, which was easy to use. Users didn’t have to convert their typewriters or provide their own build of keyboard. The Model M was a mechanical keyboard. The Shift” and “Enter” keys were reportedly too small. Because of this, IBM made and sold “Keytop Expanders” which fit over the shift and enter key-switches to expand the keys.
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Other changes in keyboard design, whether or not improving upon function, have included the folding keyboard, the water-proof (and washable) keyboard, the keyboard that also functions as a mouse, thumb-sized keyboards (for mobile devices and travel) and virtual touch-screen keyboards.
