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Typewriter Keyboard In order not to haphazardly strike or depress the keys of a typewriter with one finger, but systematically with all fingers, thereby allowing a great writing speed, the typewriter ten-finger system has long been taught and used. The Zehnfingerschreibsystem is based on a subdivision of the typewriter keyboard in several parallel, smaller keypads, which run from bottom right to top left at an angle of about 7o °. Each finger of both hands is assigned a specific keypad over which it must not reach out. Thus, it is also determined for each key from the outset, with which finger it must be struck.

When writing for the ten-finger system, however, if it is written quickly, after a very short time an over-exertion and fatigue of the hands occurs. This is probably due to the fact that when writing the ten-finger system, the hands in the wrist are bent outwards and thus assume a forced posture. For this reason, almost all typists give after a short career on the learned ten-finger system and beat, to the detriment of their own work, the keys only with one or more fingers, but mainly with those of the right hand haphazardly criss-cross. To eliminate these evils, it has been proposed to arrange the keys differently than usual. After a proposal, the keys of each row should not be in a height, but roof-shaped, in such a way that the keys of both halves of a row are each in a plane. The keyboards are no longer, as usual, horizontally but obliquely. But since the keyboards must be perpendicular to the key lever, the key lever itself are also arranged obliquely. In consideration of this, they are led in a ridge with oblique incisions. By this arrangement of the key plates and key lever the whole construction of the machine becomes awkward. Actual facilitation of the writing is not achieved, the movements to be performed by the fingers are even more unnatural than is the case with the normal typewriter keyboard. Namely, the keys can not be pushed from top to bottom, as usual, but only in an oblique direction, with the bevel even directed differently on both sides of the machine. According to another proposal, the keyboard of the typewriter is to be divided into two halves, which are so far apart that the forearm of the writer occupy a complete or nearly parallel position to each other. This creates a significant gap between the two halves. Through this gap again, the machine is relatively wide, which can not be prevented by the fact that you laid the otherwise side of the typewriter keyboard provided shift and lock key in the space between the two halves. A parallel position of the forearms during writing is by no means natural, on the contrary, it affects the overall posture of the writer, since in parallel position of the arms takes place an entrapment of the thorax. This unnatural attitude of the arms is also not eliminated by making the two keyboard halves inclined to each other so that after the paper roll to open angle is formed and sets the keys of different rows immediately behind each other. This design of the typewriter keyboard is also causing technical difficulties because, since you can of course not divide the types into two groups, the leadership of the key lever is quite cumbersome.

Effortless typing using the ten-finger method is possible only when the base of the fingers for ten-finger writing has the forearms, hands and fingers fully relaxed, and the hands and fingers perform lettering movements that are in direct extension of the underarm axis. When fully relaxed, the elbows are pushed away from the body and the hands are placed approximately in front of the middle of the body, with the curved fingers taking such a position that the fingertips do not lie in a straight line but form a kind of staircase. In order to bring about this completely relaxed position of the forearms, hands and fingers of the writer, are in a typewriter keyboard, which is divided into two mutually facing halves, that the lying in the same height rows of keys of both halves together form an open angle to the platen according to the invention, the two halves of the keyboard are juxtaposed so that between them a free field in the shape of an isosceles trapezium remains, the upper edge of which is not substantially longer than the pitch within the rows, and the keys of each longitudinal row are to be stepped outwardly from the center of the keyboard to the outside.

A further relief for the writing of the ten-finger system is ensured when the fingers to operate the space and shift key perform the least possible movements and to press the spacebar not only the thumb of the right hand, but the thumbs of both hands are used evenly and in each case the thumb of the other hand than the one who has struck the last type. As a result, to be queued in a further embodiment of the invention housed in a known manner in the open field between the keyboard halves Shift and Caps Lock between two lying at the same height button rows and the shift is a free field below final base.

With the new typewriter keyboard, as usual, including the Shift and Caps Lock keys, but only the space bar, .48 keys are present, one behind the other in four rows. The fact that the shift and lock key between the two halves are arranged, accounts for each half of the keyboard only 2.3 keys. As a result, on each half of the keyboard, one row of keys must have one less key than the other rows. The resulting gap is expediently moved to the outer end of the lowest key half-row. The paragraph between the lower and the next rows of keys then forms a touch point for the little finger when looking at the basic position of the fingers for tenfinger writing.

In the drawing, the novel key arrangement is shown in typewriters with simple switching, for example, in one embodiment. It shows Fig. I is a plan view of the keyboard of a typewriter with new key arrangement, Fig. -> A front view, Äbb. 3 is a side view.

From Fig. I is immediately apparent the great diversity of key arrangement over the previously known versions.

The keypad is divided in the middle by a free space i in the form of an isosceles trapezium pointing upwards, the upper edge of which is not substantially longer than the key spacing within the rows, divided into two equal halves A and B, each of which same number of keys, namely a3, has.

The two legs are at an angle of 70 ° to the base. Right-angled to the legs branch off the transverse rows C of the keys, sloping towards the outside. The inclination of the upwardly running rows of keys corresponds to an extension of the forearms with extended wrists, the arms have no lateral movements to perform, but only move forward at an acute angle, while the finger movements are going on without any compulsion. The field of activity that occurs to each finger of a hand corresponds to one of the fields 2, 3, 4 and 5, ie field 2 is determined by the index fingers, field 3 by the middle fingers, field 4 by the ring fingers and the field by the little fingers of the respective hand served. By means of the thumb, the shift key 6 located in the trapezoid field i and one of the space keys 8 are pressed down. The associated with the shift key 6 caps lock 7 is operated accordingly by the index finger. The movements described above apply to both hands lying on the keypad halves with normally stretched wrists.