Williams No. 1 (1896)

Williams Model No. 1 
 
First year of production:  1891
 
Company:  Williams Typewriter Co., Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
 
Serial No. 3691 
 
Contained in a plywood case and executes a grasshopper movement.
 
Williams typewriters are stunning pieces of industrial art that salute the design mantra of form following function.
 
They were invented by John Newton Williams (1840 - 1929), whose life was as interesting as were the typewriters named after him.
 
John's writing machine, with its uniquely peculiar typebar arrangement, was an appeasement for the public's want for "visible" typewriters. That's because very early typewriters were blindwriters, which simply meant that typists could not see what they were writing because the typebars struck the platen from underneath. By 1890 there was a collective roar from the public for manufacturers to produce visible typewriters.
 
To do so with a Williams, the platen was situated in the center of the typewriter while two sets of typebars were fanned out at the front and rear. These typebars struck the platen from the top similar to how a grasshopper's legs kick and retract. Thus the function of visible writing was accomplished, if only for a few lines at time. The resulting form can be best appreciated viewing the machine from the top.
 
Because the typebars struck from front and back, the paper had no place to go except underneath the platen, otherwise everything would get jammed up. So before typing, the typist would have to roll the paper into the basket at the bottom-front of the machine. As the typist's work progressed the paper would get fed from the front- to the rear-bottom basket. 
 
As mentioned earlier, John Williams was an interesting character and a brilliant inventor. He was known to keep company with Alexander Graham Bell and Emile Berliner in his inventive prime.
 
Other than typewriters, he also patented check protectors and cigar cutters.
A 3-cylinder motorcycle (The Williams Motorcycle), ca.1914
A three-wheel motor-wagon, ca.1917.
A Williams helicopter, ca.1912, which was one of the first 'copters ever!
 
The Williams Typewriter Company was in litigation almost from the very beginning, primarily for patent infringement. 
 
By 1909 ownership of the company was assumed by Jerome Burgess Secor who renamed the business and factory to the Secor Typewriter Company. The new company would no longer produces the Williams but, rather, a typewriter that was a complete departure, The Secor.