Samuel W. (Samuel Ward) Francis

Born in New York City on December 26, 1835, Samuel Ward Francis was an American physician, writer, and inventor. He later settled in Newport, Rhode Island, where he practiced medicine, served as a consulting surgeon at Newport Hospital, and helped found the Newport Natural History Society.

Francis had an unusually wide range of interests. Sources credit him with 17 patents, including an 1857 "literary piano" typewriter whose keys worked in a piano-like fashion, and an 1874 patent for a combined knife, fork, and spoon. That mix of curiosity and practicality runs through his life story: he was not only a doctor, but also someone drawn to mechanical experiments and new ideas.

He also published books, including Life and Death and Inside Out, a Curious Book by a Singular Man. Francis died on March 25, 1886. Surviving accounts suggest a figure who was energetic, eccentric, and deeply engaged with both science and writing.