Keyboards

Keyboards

Author: History Hit March 5, 2023 Duration: 37:48

The keyboard on the first ever commercially successful typewriter and the keyboard on your smartphone are separated by a gulf of time and technology. Yet their layout is essentially the same (plus or minus a few new buttons along the way).


Who invented the QWERTY keyboard layout and why hasn’t it been updated?


What is the Shift button all about?


Who else remembers the weird way it felt to type on the ZX Spectrum?


To tell the stories that lurk underneath the keyboards you use every day, Dallas is joined by Marcin Wichary. His book ‘Shift Happens’ is available via Kickstarter now: bit.ly/3ETOn8c


Produced by Sophie Gee, Edited by Freddy Chick, Senior Editor is Charlotte Long.


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Dallas Campbell guides you through the fascinating and often overlooked backstories of the objects and ideas that shaped our world in Patented: History of Inventions. This isn't just a dry recounting of dates and blueprints; it's a deep dive into the human drama behind innovation. You'll hear about accidental breakthroughs, the forgotten figures whose contributions were sidelined, and the clever-sometimes dubious-marketing that turned an idea into a household name. From questioning the true legacy of figures like Thomas Edison to uncovering the surprising connection between foundational garments and space exploration, each episode unpacks these narratives with a sense of curiosity and wit. Produced by History Hit, the podcast brings in historians, scientists, and specialists to add depth and context, transforming every tale into a compelling detective story. Tune in for a consistently engaging exploration that reveals how luck, persistence, and sheer human ingenuity collide to create the fabric of modern life. The result is a listening experience that changes the way you look at the ordinary world around you, one remarkable story at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Patented: History of Inventions
Podcast Episodes
Rise and Fall of Zeppelins [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:46
They were cigars the size of ocean liners that floated through the clouds. Cow intestines filled with hydrogen held them up. The world’s first flight attendant served champagne and caviar.Zeppelins seem almost too strang…
Online Advertising [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:22
What was the first ever internet ad? When was the last time someone actually clicked on one? What happened to all the proper ads with catchy jingles?Today Dallas investigates one of the most infuriating aspects of modern…
Paranormal Technology [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:01
Welcome to Patented-Gone-Paranormal!! Thomas Edison tried to make a telephone that called the spirit world. One of the pioneers of radio believed he could talk with his dead son through the 'Ether'.Technology might seem…
Nuclear Fusion Power [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:56
For almost a century we’ve been trying to build a star on earth. Not easy with temperatures reaching 150,000,000℃.Today on Patented it’s the story of our efforts to make a nuclear fusion reactor with Arthur Turrell autho…
Linoleum [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:51
Linoleum, or “lino”, once ruled the world (of flooring). It appeared everywhere from the Titanic to your gran’s kitchen. But where did it come from?We hear the story of the Victorian inventor, Frederick Walton, who came…
How The Victorians Took Us To The Moon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:36
If a Victorian met Elon Musk they would completely get him. The world’s richest man, determined to use technology that doesn’t yet exist to colonise Mars. Classic Victorian thinking.The Victorians didn’t really take us t…
Eco Farming [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:16
George Washington Carver is well known to Americans as the Peanut Man. It’s been written of him that ‘peanuts were like paintbrushes: They were tools to express his imagination’.If that sounds a bit ridiculous, it’s beca…
FORENSICS: DNA [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:33
The birth of DNA fingerprinting will forever be tied to Leicester, England. It was invented in a lab in the city’s university by Alec Jeffreys in 1984. And it was in the outskirts of the city that it was first used to ca…
Punk & the Sex Pistols [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:53
Have you ever heard the story of how punk began?“They are Dickensian-like urchins who with ragged clothes and pockmarked faces roam the streets of foggy gaslit London…Some of these ragamuffin gangs jump up on tables amid…

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