# Typewriter keyboards are over 100 years old - Why is carpal tunnel a modern disease?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typewriter-keyboards-are-over-100-years-old-why-is-carpal-tunnel-a-modern-disease/175930>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 17, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typewriter-keyboards-are-over-100-years-old-why-is-carpal-tunnel-a-modern-disease/175930 "2003-05-17T19:01:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Melanie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Melanie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melanie)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typewriter-keyboards-are-over-100-years-old-why-is-carpal-tunnel-a-modern-disease/175930/21 "2003-05-18T20:29:21Z")

</div>

Did you know that the QWERTY keyboard was specifically designed to slow down the maximum typing speed, since hitting two keys in close sequence caused the mechanical letter bitties to lock up?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typewriter-keyboards-are-over-100-years-old-why-is-carpal-tunnel-a-modern-disease/175930/22 "2003-05-18T22:02:58Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Melanie \*  
> \*\*Did you know that the QWERTY keyboard was specifically designed to slow down the maximum typing speed, since hitting two keys in close sequence caused the mechanical letter bitties to lock up? \*\*

Nope, wrong. [The Fable of the Keys](http://wwwpub.utdallas.edu/~liebowit/keys1.html) explodes this myth, but is perhaps a bit long on the reading. A much shorter exposition of the piece was written by _The Economist_ and is called “[The QWERTY Myth](http://www.independent.org/tii/news/liebowitz_economist.html).” You’d do well to [make like the Perfect Master](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_248.html) and learn the Straight Dope about QWERTY. 🙂

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typewriter-keyboards-are-over-100-years-old-why-is-carpal-tunnel-a-modern-disease/175930.md?page=1)