To speed up typing while slowing down the typist.  True, history shows that Christopher Latham Shole in 1872 invented the machine called the "Type-Writer."  Strangely enough, the first typewriter finally was designed to slow down the typist. Sholes had developed his machine for convenience, but was faced with a huge problem: the keys jammed if the typist went too fast. Sholes tried for months to fix this problem.  Finally, in desperation, Sholes took a step that still remains today with our keyboard.  Sholes redesigned the layout of the letters on the keyboard to force the typist to slow down. We call his layout the "QWERTY" keyboard (after the first six letters of the typewriter's second row).

The official name of the keyboard is "Qwerty". The keyboard is named after the top row of letters on the keyboard. If you don't think so just look on your keyboard. 

The first keyboard was first invented in 1864.