Typewriters have a layout to prevent the hammers from jamming by spacing common keys out farther, they are not designed to slow down typing. Due to the mechani

Typewriters have a layout to prevent the hammers from jamming by spacing common keys out farther, they are not designed to slow down typing. Due to the mechanics in a typewriter two keys close together have a much larger range of movement where they interfere than two keys far away. A hammer will have to move almost entirely back to its rest position if an adjacent hammer is to not run into it. On the other hand it would have to move only half an inch to get out of the way of a hammer on the other side of the typewriter.