1857.] AMERICAN PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL. 121 and you have that complex- ion and that color and tex- ture of hair which indicates remarkable power. These qualities you doubtless take from your father, but that which the world sees mainly in you is what you have in- herited from your mother- namely, those elements of body and mind which pro- duce smoothness, cordiality, persuasiveness, friendliness, and sympathy. You are ex- ceedingly well calculated to go through life in a smooth way, and though you feel like rushing ahead, Jehu fashion, and generally do it, still the world is willing to clear the track for you, and though you govern nine out of ten of those with whom you associate, you have less real conflict than most per- sons. You have great exec- utiveness, still you are not quarrelsome. As a boy, you wanted the fastest horse or boat, the best kite or hoop, of the whole party. You feel like urging your way onward and upward to sue- - cess with unusual earnestness, still you never feel disposed to quarrel and wrangle. Your Combativeness is not as large as youi' Destructive- ness. You generally succeed in whatever you undertake, in consequence of the thorough, exec- utive spirit with which the latter faculty endows you. The world takes you to be a very good- natured man, and you are so until you are in- vaded or cornered up, then you are capable of hewing your way out. You should be known for business sagacity and the disposition to take care of yourself. You have the power of making money, and would like, in a commercial sense, to make it very rapidly and abundantly. Socially, you are very generous; and in your family and among your friends you would never be suspected of having so much of the love of gain as you really possess, because you are so liberal in.your distributions. You are unusually strong in Firmness and self- reliance. Your will, joined to your force of char- acter and your practical intellect, leads you to overcome obstacles with less friction to yourself than is common to most men of your age. You are more self-poised, self-possessed, and cool in your action than most young, ardent men, because your Self-Esteem and Firmness join with the bil- ious or motive elements of your temperament and that staunchness which large Destructiveness gives, to sustain you and enable you to carry yourself steadily through difficulties with a great deal of momentum. The heavier the load you have to carry, the more capable you seem to be of dis- charging the duty. Light business-small affairs -do not seem to steady your mind or your hands. You have talent for engineering, for mechan- P 0 R T R A I T OF SAMUEL W. FRANCIS. Daguerreotyped by BrAdy, drawn by Wallin, engraved by Bobbett. ism, for invention, for seeing the fitness and adaptation of one thing to another, and you un- derstand the powers of combination unusually well. If you had been brought up among ma- chinery, you would have learned the whole scheme of mechanism, theoretically and practi- cally, as easily as you learned to feed yourself, without knowing when or how it was done. Your logical power takes a practical direction. You are not in many respects disposed to follow out the routine of the school-men. Your mode of study is to see how fully the theory may be ren- dered available in practical life. You have talent for the languages, and if thrown into a foreign country, where the Spanish, or German, or other language, was spoken chiefly, you would learn to speak it well in a short time. As a scholar, you would be very fond of the clas- sics, especially of Greek. There is that in your temperament which harmonizes with the Greek language and literature. You have a love of the beautiful and sublime, and also of the ancient and honorable, which gives you a high respect for the noble, the heroic, and the true. You have large Benevolence, hence you sympa- thize deeply with all who can suffer; and you have strong affections, which make you popular in nearly all society from that of childhood up to old age. You have versatility of feeling-are rather im- patient if detained or restrained. From childhood to the present hour you have felt a restless earn- estness to be busy, and to have variety in that business. You could not endure a plodding pro- fession. You prefer to make yourself familiar with many pursuits and professions, so as to be intelligent in them all. You could not be a mere S. W. FRANCIS. PHRENOLOGICAL CHARACTER AND BIOGRAPHY. PHRENOLOGICAL CHARACTER. [Dictated to the reporter without any knowledge of the name or character of the subject.] You have a remarkably strong organization, and are not only wiry, enduring, and hardy, but you have also an unusual development of the vital organs. These combinations make up a very pe- culiar organization, giving toughness and strength in conjunction with susceptibility and warmth, and power to manufacture vital steam in abund- ance for the use of the mental and physical ma- a chinery. T our bony structure is amply developed, 122 AMERICAN PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL. [Dec., geologist, or a mere chemist or mechanist, but you prefer the whole circle of science so far as to be intelligent in respect to them all. This tend- ency, while it gives you enterprise and the power to render yourself happy and useful, will prevent you from pursuing any one department so far or so high as if you were to devote yourself to one thing. You have the elements of devotion, and respect for things sacred, yet you do not show as much religious zeal as you do of the spirit of philan- thropy. You incline to regard the great majority of the human race as having an interest in the Divine benefaction, and you hope that all may be rendered better and happier in the next life than in this, hence you are liberal and lenient in your religious sympathies and opinions. You are up- right and just, anxious to do right and to obey the injunctions of Conscientiousness. Your Hope leads you to anticipate good, and to bear up cheer- fully against trouble and disaster; and this faculty, joined with large Mirthfulness and strong social organs, serves to make your company agreeable and your society sought after. You have such a genial and cheerful spirit that you carry sunshine wherever you go; and if you were a physician, the magnetism of your manner would do your patients more good than your medicines. BIOGRAPHY. A peculiar interest attaches to our present subject, who is the youngest son of the world-re- nowned Nestor of American medicine and learn- ing, Dr. John W. Francis. Young Francis having been selected as the subject for a trial of skill in drawing between the celebrated artist Wallin, and the newly-introduced method of photograph- ing portraits on wood for the engraver. The por- trait of Dr. J. Marion Sims, the distinguished founder and attending surgeon of the Woman's' Hospital, which appears on our first page, repre- sents the photograph, and the skill of the eminent wood-engraver, Mr. J. W. Brightly; that of Mr. Francis representing the highest skill in portrait drawing on wood of Wallin, and the ability in engraving of Mr. A. Bobbett, who is said to pos- sess no superior in this country. Two more ap- propriate subjects could not have been selected for this interesting trial, which has been brought about through the instrumentality of Mr. H. L. Stuart, an active friend of substantial progress in art, education, inventions, and all philanthropic enterprises of the day. Samuel W. Francis, one of the most promising and gifted young men in our country, is a native of the city of New York. He was born on the 26th December, 1836, and is just entering upon the career of a generous manhood. He com- menced his young life at a period of great com- mercial embarrassment, and being the youngest of the family, he was kept more closely within the home circle, receiving the rudiments of education from a governess selected for her sound judgment and special fitness for instilling into his youthful mind substantial intellectual food, and develop the elements of true manliness. Over-anxiety for his welfare in his earlier years rendered him more delicate than his natural constitution seemed to warrant. At twelve years of age he commenced his pre- paratory school course. At seventeen he passed his examination for Columbia College; but his health being somewhat reduced from over-work, he visited Europe in company with the family of a leading merchant of this city. While there, he resorted chiefly to places celebrated for historical and literary associations, making a six weeks' tour in Ireland, visiting the bogs, Lakes of Killarney, the Giant's Causeway, and the prominent points of interest in Scotland and France. He returned from Europe within a year, and comfiienced his collegiate course in 1853, which he continued with untiring devotion and success, graduating during the present year with honor. Mr. Francis possesses fine musical talent, plays the harp and piano, and is considered one of the best amateur players on the banjo in the country. He has also shown ability as a composer, and at the age of nineteen wrote a brilliant and suggest- ive essay on music as a reply to an assertion made by a gentleman when in conversation with him, that " Music is sensual in its nature." He has a library of several hundred volumes, containing many rare old books, and has a most in- teresting autograph collection, containing several hundred valuable autographs, collected by himself, and preserved in autograph sheets, illustrated with a beautiful design of his own conception. Mr. Francis was Chairman of the Catalogue Publication Committee of Columbia College for the year 1857, the catalogue being considered the finest specimen in all respects of the printer's art, good taste, and elegance ever produced. He is also a member of the New York Historical Society. While at college he acquired the power of mak- ing out letters written in any secret alphabet without the aid of a key, a faculty which was .possessed in an eminent degree by Edgar A. Poe. 'During a period of illness, just before graduating -the result of hard study-Mr. Francis conceived the idea of the practicability of a machine for printing or writing by means of piano keys, and gradually matured the plan until his recovery enabled him to consult with proper persons for carrying it into effect. He first tried a carpenter, who, on mastering the principle, declared it was beyond his depth. He next consulted a harp- maker, who, after considering the matter for two weeks, asserted that it was too complicated, and that he did not see the end of it. Not at all dis- couraged by these repeated failures, Mr. Francis submitted his theory and plans to Victor Beau- mont, a skillful mechanician and engineer, who conversed on the subject until he mastered the theory, and readily undertook to draw the neces- sary plans and construct a machine. With Mr. Beaumont's aid, our young inventor soon mastered the mechanical difficulties, and at the end of six months' mental study and many experiments, he presented to the public his first writing-machine. The machine is placed in a neat, portable writ- ing-case, which may be carried about and used on any ordinary table. It is worked by means of keys placed on a key-board like those of a piano, each key representing a letter of the alphabet, and each letter producing its impression at a common center. An endless narrow tape stretches the full length of the " bed" of the machine, pass- ing over a small roller at either end, and uniting underneath. This tape is saturated with the ink. Directly in the center of the " bed," and under the tape, is a circular hole of one inch diameter. Over this hole, and under the tape, on a car, a sheet of paper is placed; then a sheet of tissue paper directly over it, leaving the tape between the two sheets of paper. A delicate frame then falls Upon the paper, which keeps it in place, and moves while the printing progresses. .. A short steel rod then falls from a suspended arm, so as to present a flat surface os platen in the center, directly over the paper. The lids being raised from the keys, they are played upon as in a piano, each being lettered from A to Z, with the various punctuation marks, etc., etc. The numbers are represented by letters, as CVIH. for 108, and so on ; and the capitals are designated by a single dash at the top of the requisite letter. Each key, when struck, acts upon an inde - pendent lever within the machine, attached to a little elbow and arm, on the end of which" is the corresponding letter-type, which now strikes the under sheet of paper, and presses against the plat- en on the suspended steel rod, so that the inked tape, being between the two sheets of paper, the blow leaves the letter printed on each, viz., on the upper side of the lower sheet, and, of course, on the lower side of the upper, when brought in con- tact with the tape. As the printing goes on, the paper moves steadily to the left, and when the line is within four letters of its end, a little bell rings spon- taneously to notify the writer that he must touch a spring which pushes the sheet up the space of one line and back, to begin again; and as the print- ing of the new line goes on, the paper travels back another line, and so on till the page is completed. The letters can be formed of any sized type, engraved for the purpose, and suiting the taste of the purchaser. Those who use this " Writing Printer" will be enabled to strike off two copies in less time than is required to produce one with the pen. Divines, while in the pulpit, will be freed from the inconveniences attending an ordinary manuscript; authors secured from losing the re- sult of many hours of mental application, by the destruction of a single copy while in the hands of the publisher; editors no longer troubled by the necessary correction of errors in proof-sheets, in- cident to manuscript copies; reporters may with less labor furnish printed reports ; and mer- chants, while writing a clearer letter and saving time, may keep neatly printed copies, instead of the illegible ones they now obtain by means of the copying-press. By a slight modification, raised letters may be printed for the use of the blind. The price is $100. This is cheaper than a good sewing-machine, and the art of working it is not more difficult to acquire. The position of the "writer" being erect, is eminently conducive to gracefulness and health, and the whole page is directly under his eye. Literary men can not fail to take a deep interest in the success of this invention. With it, a bad chirography may be concealed, but let bad spellers beware of its fas- cination. It is exceedingly grateful to be able to chroni- cle instances where the sons of our wealthy and eminent citizens earnestly apply themselves to de- veloping new resources of material advancement, thus setting an honorable example to the thou- sands of idle and inefficient youths, sons of over- indulgent and well-to-do parents.