Evolution of the computer keyboard

The creation of the present computer keyboard began with the invention of the typewriter. A few important technological developments created the change of the typewriter into the computer keyboard. The teletype machine was introduced in the 1930s; this technology combined the technology of the typewriter (used as an input and a printing device) with the telegraph. Elsewhere, punched card systems were combined with typewriters to create keypunches. Keypunches were the basis of early adding machines and IBM was selling over one million dollars worth of adding machines in 1931.

Early computer keyboards were first equipped from the punch card and teletype technologies. In 1946, the Eniac computer used a punched card reader as its input and output device. In 1948, the Binac computer used an electromechanically controlled typewriter to in cooperation input data directly onto magnetic tape and to print results. The emerging electric typewriter additional improved the technological tie-up between the typewriter and the computer. There were many electromechanical steps in transmitting data between the keyboard and the computer that slowed things down. With electric keyboards, the keyboard's keys might now send electronic impulses straight to the computer and save time. By the late ‘70s and early on ‘80s, the entire computers used electronic keyboards and VDTs