[frompdx]

  The keyboard arrangement was incidentally changed into QWERTY, first to receive telegraphs, then to thrash out a compromise between inventors and producers, and at last to evade old patents.

Interesting article. The connection to Morse code makes a lot of sense (C being similar to S). The requirement to move I below 8 to type 1870 or 1871 quickly is hilarious in retrospect. At the time who could have known the decision to focus on efficiency for the coming decade could be so enduring?

[volemo]

> efficiency for the coming decade

They were future proofing though: the "I" is between "8" and "9", so they were optimising for the next 130 years, not merely coming decades.