The standard layout for English-language computer keyboards, so named for the top left six alphabetical characters. The QWERTY layout was patented by Christopher Sholes in 1868 for use with the first mechanical typewriter, which he also invented. Sholes sold the patent rights to Remington in 1873.The original layout was in alphabetical order, which caused the typebars to become entangled frequently once the typist gained proficiency and speed.Although the original justification is lost in time and there have developed a number of theories about it, the QWERTY layout certainly split up commonly used pairs of letters (e.g., s and t) and mitigated the issue of typebar entanglement.