# The Letters R and L on the keyboard **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 29, 2000, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547 "2000-03-29T03:38:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tomgott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6bbea6/32.png) [@tomgott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomgott)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/1 "2000-03-29T03:38:00Z")
This one’s been plaguing me. Why are keyboards set up so that the letter R is on the left side while the letter L is on the right? This is especially troublesome for me anytime I have to type the word “right” or “left” as some logic center of my brain causes me to hesitate. I suppose any answer to this demands some explanation about the keyboard arrangement as a whole. ---
**Author:** ![Lexicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ac8455/32.png) [@Lexicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lexicon)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/2 "2000-03-29T04:01:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I suppose any answer to this demands some explanation about the keyboard arrangement as a whole. The whole “qwerty” arrangement came about because back in the day, those old-style typewriters couldn’t keep up with people when they the keyboard was arranged alphabetically. So they (typewriter manufacturer) jumbled up the letters to slow people down. Of course, this is the answer my dad gave me when I was six, so it may be a little Calvin-and-Hobbes-esque. And actually, according to ask jeeves ([www.ask.com](http://www.ask.com)), he wasn’t that far off… well sort of. Check it out: > [@](#): > > For years, popular writers have accused Sholes of deliberately arranging his keyboard to slow down fast typists who would otherwise jam up his sluggish machine. > In fact, his motives were just the opposite. > . > When Sholes built his first model in 1868, the keys were arranged alphabetically in two rows. At the time, Milwaukee was a backwoods town. The crude machine > shop tools available there could hardly produce a finely-honed instrument that worked with precision. Yes, the first typewriter was sluggish. Yes, it did clash and jam > when someone tried to type with it. But Sholes was able to figure out a way around the problem simply by rearranging the letters. Looking inside his early machine, > we can see how he did it. > . > The first typewriter had its letters on the end of rods called “typebars.” The typebars hung in a circle. The roller which held the paper sat over this circle, and when a > key was pressed, a typebar would swing up to hit the paper from underneath. 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 he had to take the most common letter pairs such as “TH” and make sure their typebars hung at safe distances. > . > He did this using a study of letter-pair frequency prepared by educator Amos Densmore, brother of James Densmore, who was Sholes’ chief financial backer. The > QWERTY keyboard itself was determined by the existing mechanical linkages of the typebars inside the machine to the keys on the outside. Sholes’ solution did not > eliminate the problem completely, but it was greatly reduced. And that sounds like the straight dope, but I guess that Jeeves could be wrong. * * * “Winners never quit and quitters never win, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.” ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/3 "2000-03-29T04:22:00Z")
I agree with everything posted by Lexicicon!!! ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/4 "2000-03-29T04:24:00Z")
I am not a sock puppet!!! ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/5 "2000-03-29T04:42:00Z")
Just Kidding. :D, Although I do. Also Cecil can be read at [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_248.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_248.html) Sorry no linking. I’m shy on the first date. {He doesn’t know how} Apparently, there is some debate over QWERTY vs DVORAK. More importantly, apparently there is also some name calling. Maybe someone will start a thread here. ---
**Author:** ![Steve-o](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecc23a/32.png) [@Steve-o](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve-o)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/6 "2000-03-29T04:50:00Z")
## There is an article in the archives at [http://discover.com/](http://discover.com/) that you’ll have to run a search of the archives to find (it’s not linkable). The Curse of QWERTY by: Jared Diamond - April 1997 Things are random only insofar as we don’t understand them. ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/7 "2000-03-29T05:23:00Z")
Hey Steve-o, Thanks for the info. I read Jared Diamond’s impressive Guns, Germs, and Steel. Hey look at what I did. {I have powers} peace * * * ## Just putting my 2sense in. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered. -Thomas Paine (fugitive slave catcher) ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/8 "2000-03-29T05:28:00Z")
Yeah, but Why do we Park on a Driveway and Drive on a Parkway !!! * * * Been here so long he’s got to calling it Home. ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/9 "2000-03-29T14:08:00Z")
For heaven’s sake tom: do as I do. Type with two fingers (one from each hand, preferably). Never had that plobrem in more than 30 years of typing. ---
**Author:** ![tomgott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6bbea6/32.png) [@tomgott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomgott)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/10 "2000-03-29T17:21:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by omni-not: > **For heaven’s sake tom: do as I do. Type with two fingers (one from each hand, preferably). Never had that plobrem in more than 30 years of typing.** I don’t know, Omni, the two finger method strikes me as something for those who’ve had run ins with industrial farming equipment. I have to think the nine finger method is much less labor intensive. ---
**Author:** ![tomgott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6bbea6/32.png) [@tomgott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomgott)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/11 "2000-03-29T17:23:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by omni-not: > **For heaven’s sake tom: do as I do. Type with two fingers (one from each hand, preferably). Never had that plobrem in more than 30 years of typing.** Oh I just caught that “plobrem” Omni! Very funny. (Please tell me that was intentional.) ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2000, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/12 "2000-03-29T17:36:00Z")
What do you think, tom? By the way, are you saving that tenth finger for what I suspect? ---
**Author:** ![tomgott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6bbea6/32.png) [@tomgott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomgott)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2000, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-letters-r-and-l-on-the-keyboard/9547/13 "2000-04-01T10:32:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by omni-not: > **What do you think, tom? By the way, are you saving that tenth finger for what I suspect?** Omni, you wouldn’t know this as a proponent of the two finger typing method but you don’t use both thumbs when employing the “new school” typing method. The right one is for the space bar. The left one merely chaperones the other nine fingers.