Jan 21 — The Inception of the Computer Keyboard and Its Historical Significance

The first computer keyboard was created for the ENIAC computer. Quick reminder, that this was the 1940s - there were no home computers at the time. So “the ENIAC computer” does not refer to a series of machines, but to one specific device.

ENIAC was put into operation in 1945 and presented to the general public in 1946. At the time of its launch, it did not have a keyboard: engineers flipped switches, connected and reconnected plugs, and data was entered using punch cards.

On January 21, the world was introduced to a teletype that had been adapted to transmit signals directly into the computer’s memory. Moreover, the results of computations were immediately printed on the teletype’s paper tape, which can be considered the first instance of direct input/output in the history of computers.

Yes, the ENIAC computer still weighed 27 tons, but it now gave its user a seated workstation- similar to the one we use today.

About ENIAC https://pammack.sites.clemson.edu/lec122/eniac.htm

See also ConnNet: Connecticut’s Pioneering Public Computer Network of 1985.