Utilizing the QWERTY keyboard, the current record holder for the highest typing speed is Sean Wrona, who is recorded to have typed at a top speed of 256 wpm. It’s easy to be a speed demon on today’s computers, but imagine a time when the only way to type a letter was on a standard typewriter. Typing competitions around the turn of the 20th century were big business and garnered huge attention, especially in the United States. That was, in part, due to the ever-blossoming typewriting and personal assistant fields of employment, requiring typists capable of the highest speeds. While Albert Tangora averaged 147 wpm on a manual typewriter, it was Stella Pajunas who set the world record for typing, clocking in at a monumental 216 wpm. Her typing was so fast that the human eye couldn’t keep count of her keystrokes when timed.
