Monday, December 03, 2007

In 1932-33 the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Science assigned two substantial research grants to the University of Washington to determine why typewriting is difficult to learn, slow and fatiguing to perform, and conducive to errors, "in order that humanity may benefit from the findings." By exhaustive tests, motion analyses, letter counts, finger work loads, and functional try-outs, the Carnegie Study of Typewriting proved conclusively that most of the difficulties in typing result from the haphazard keyboard designed for two finger typists in 1873. ... The resulting "Simplified Keyboard" was mathematically, experimentally, and practically tested. -- August Dvorak: "Horse and Buggy Typewriters?", The Abilene Reporter-News, Vol.75, No.82 (September 25, 1955), Sec.B, p.8, l.3-5.

Well, Prof. Dvorak, you mentioned here in the article shown above that your Carnegie Study was in 1932-33, but in fact it was in 1933-35. You mentioned here that your Carnegie Study proved that the difficulties in typing result from Sholes' keyboard, but your Carnegie Study should have been "improvement in the teaching of typewriting by use of an improved keyboard" (cf. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Thirty-first Annual Report (June 30, 1936), pp.76-77). Furthermore, you mentioned here that your "Simplified Keyboard" was resulted after your Carnegie Study, but in fact you perfected your "Simplified Keyboard" on May 21, 1932 (cf. U. S. Patent No.2040248). It seems queer for me. Prof. Dvorak, are you really August Dvorak?