Keyboard Builders' Digest / Keyboard Spotting
Early split patent
Fritz Heidner's split layouts prove there's nothing new under the sun.
Published November 12, 2020
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Sorry if this is common knowledge, but I've just stumbled upon an image and thought it would be interesting and may help to reevaluate our views on originality and innovation. Our originality and innovation.
This is one of the many split keyboard designs by Fritz Heidner with columnar stagger and something resembling a thumb cluster – from the year of 1915. (Ofc for mechanical typewriters).
Be it known that I, Fritz Heidner, abject of the German Emperor, and residing at Freiburg, Baden, German Empire, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Type-Writing Machines.
The original patent – US1138474, May 4, 1915 – is available here:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1138474A/en
Published on Thu 12th Nov 2020. Featured in KBD #1 (source).
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