THE COMBINATIONAL KEYBOARD 309 



Now it is to be observed, that when the hands are brought together to 

 begin typing, these really effective fingers are all found to be directly at the 

 centre of the keyboard, and the weaker fingers toward its outskirts. This is 

 the most important fact in our problem as regards the habits of the hands ; 

 and it at once delimits the centre of the keyboard as the most efficient area for 

 doing work. This being so, the question arises how best to utilise the central 

 area of the keyboard, and a consideration of this question carries us on to 

 the next two aspects of our problem, which may be taken together as being 

 mutually dependent on each other. 



2 and 3. The Habits of the Language and the Habits of the Mind. — It must 

 be regarded as the primary axiom in keyboard arranging that the most 

 efficient letters of our Language, that is to say, those letters which enter most 

 largely into the structure of English words, shall be brought to the centre of 

 the keyboard to meet the direct action of the most efficient fingers. The 

 relative values of the letters of the English Alphabet as word-makers are as 

 follows — (Chambers's Encyclopedia, ed. circa 1888, article — Printing) : 

 E 120, T 90, A 85, S 80, I '80, O 80, N 80, H 64, R 63, D 44, L 40, U 34, 

 C 30, M 30, F 25, W 20, Y 20. P 17, G 17, B 16, V 12, K 8, Q 5. J 4, 

 X 4, and Z 2.1 



These figures, set out in the order of their importance, are deserving 

 of a most careful scrutiny. Added together they represent a sum-total of 

 1070, which number, for the purpose of our exposition, may be regarded as 

 the full numerical power of the twenty-six letters of our Alphabet. On 

 proceeding, however, to subject this sum-total to analysis, the remarkable 

 fact is revealed that little more than one-half of the twenty-six letters includes 

 within itself nearly the whole value of the numerical sum-total. By a simple 

 sum in addition it will be seen that only fourteen letters bear the burden of 

 forming" the structure not merely of one-half, nor two-thirds, nor even of 

 three-fourths, but actually of more than four-fifths of all the words in our 

 Language ; or, to state it more concisely in another form, 86 out of every 

 100 words are built up from the following letters : E 120, T 90, A 85, S 80, 

 I 80, O 80, N 80, H 64, R 63, D 44, L 40, U 34, C 30, M 30, or equal to 

 a summed value of 920, the remaining twelve letters of the alphabet reserving 

 a value of 150 only I Hence the paramount importance of these fourteen 

 most efiicient letters being placed on the keyboard in the most efficient 

 positions to meet the direct action of the most ef&cient fingers. They must, 

 without the shadow of a doubt, be found within its central area. From the 

 logic of this fact there is no escape. But if the first axiom of keyboard- 

 arranging be that the effective letters must be centralised to meet the effective 

 fingers, the second axiom, and only second in importance, is that those 

 combinations of letters which are most frequently found together in the 

 structure of words shall also be found together on the keyboard, and the 

 most valuable of them within its central area. This problem of combinations 

 is really a complex one, and comparable with trying to solve a difficult chess 

 problem, for although it is easy to place E, as the most efficient letter for 

 word-making, at the centre of the board, and to group the other letters about 

 it in the order of their relative values, from the centre outwards to the out- 

 skirts of the keyboard, it is not easy to do this and at the same time suitably 

 group together all those combinations that are of the utmost importance to 

 the fluent and pleasant writing of our Language. Many hundreds of keyboards 

 have been drawn with different groupings of letters for testing and adjusting 

 the various combinations into the best positions in order to arrive at a satis- 



1 The Encyclopedia gives the figures as E 12,000, T 9,000, A 8,500, and 

 so on to Z 200 ; but, for the more convenient handling of these values, which 

 play a large part in our exposition, the hundred units have been struck off 

 each letter without, of course, affecting their relative values, since the ratio 

 of E 120 to Z 2 is the same as E 12,000 to Z 200, 



