![]() This theory has little proof to substantiate it, but it does make sense.Ī second theory refers to a study done by Bell Labs in 1960. The telephone designers figured that if they reversed the layout, the dialing speeds would decrease and the tone-recognition would be able to do its job more reliably. The tone-recognition technology could not operate effectively at the speeds at which these specialists could dial the numbers. They could hit the numbers extremely quickly, which was great for data entry, but not so great for dialing a touch-tone phone. Data-entry professionals, and others who used calculators fairly regularly, were quite adept at navigating these keypads. When the touch-tone telephone was being designed in the late 1950s, the calculator and adding-machine designers had already established a layout that had 7, 8 and 9 across the top row. The first theory deals with the telephone's circuitry and tone-recognition hardware. The reasons behind the differences are not known for certain, but a few theories exist. It is pretty odd that a calculator and a touch-tone telephone have exactly opposite layouts for their keypads, which have many identical components. This might have entered AT&T's thinking, particularly in the "old days" when phone numbers contained only five digits, along with two exchange letters.įeldman, David (1987),Why do clocks run clockwise?, New York: Harper & Row.įrom How Stuff Works: Why is the keypad arrangement different for a telephone and a calculator? It has also been suggested that if the lower numbers were on the bottom, the alphabet would then start on the bottom and be in reverse alphabetical order, a confusing setup. From our contacts with Sharp and Texas Instruments, two pioneers in the calculator field, it seems that this story could easily be true. Much to their chargin, AT&T discovered that the calculator companies had conducted no research at all. Ford related the story, which may or may not be apocryphal, that when AT&T contemplated the design of their key pad, they called several calculator companies, hoping they would share the research that led them to the opposite configuration. According to Bob Ford, of AT&T's Bell Laboratories, a second reason was that some phone-company research concluded that this configuration helped eliminate dialing errors. There is no doubt that the touch-tone key pad was designed to mimic the rotary dial with the "1" on top and the 7-8-9 on the bottom. From the beginning, hand-held calculators placed 7-8-9 on the top row, from left to right.īefore the touch-tone phone, of course, rotary dials were the rule. ![]() All of the early calculators were ten rows high, and most were nine rows wide. The next row to the right had 90 on top and 10 on the bottom, the next row to the right had 900 on top, 100 on the bottom, and so on. The key pads on the first calculators actually resembled old cash registers, with the left row of keys numbering 9 on top down to 0 on the bottom. Both configurations descended directly from earlier prototypes.īefore 1964, calculators were either mechanical or electronic devices with heavy tubes. Telephone keypads put the 1-2-3 on the top row. Calculators were arranged from the beginning so that the lowest digits were on bottom. Even today, fast punchers can render a touch-tone phone worthless.īoth the touch-tone key pad and the all-transistor calculator were made available to the general public in the early 1960s. ![]() From David Feldman: Why is the telephone touch-tone key pad arranged differently from the calculator key pad?Ī theory we have often heard is that the phone company intentionally reversed the calculator configuration so that people who were already fast at operating calculators would slow down enough to allow the signals of the phone to register. ![]()
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