The standard English language typewriter keyboard. Q, W, E, R, T and Y are the letters on the top left, alphabetic row. Designed by Christopher Sholes, who invented the typewriter, the keyboard layout was organized to prevent people from typing too fast and jamming the keys. The QWERTY layout was included in the drawing for Sholes' patent application in 1878. See Dvorak keyboard, AZERTY keyboard and typewriter.