Eli H. Janney (November 12, 1831 – June 16, 1912), aka Eli Hamilton Janney or simply Eli Janney, was the inventor of the modern knuckle coupler that replaced link and pin couplers on North American railroads.
Biography
He was born in 1831 to Daniel Janney and Elizabeth Avis Haines in Loudoun County, Virginia. He studied briefly at a seminary. He married Cornelia Hamilton (1833–1889).
In the American Civil War, Janney achieved the rank of major for the Confederate States of America, and served on the staff of General Robert E. Lee.
After the war, he was a dry goods clerk in Alexandria, Virginia; he spent many of his lunches whittling his concept out of a block of wood for a replacement to the railroads' link and pin couplers that were in wide use. On April 1, 1873, Janney filed for a patent titled "Improvement in Car-Couplings" describing the knuckle style couplers that are in use on railroads today. He was awarded on April 29, 1873.
He died on June 16, 1912, in Alexandria, Virginia and was buried in Ivy Hill Cemetery. The City of Alexandria named one of their streets in his honor, Janney's Lane.
Janney's coupler and the Westinghouse air brake are generally regarded as being the two most significant safety inventions in U.S. railroads between the end of the Civil War and 1900.
References
Further reading
Railcar Coupler History in North America, by J.H.White at American Heritage Magazine CPRR.org (2004), Link and Pin Couplers; includes a scanned copy of the patent application. Retrieved March 31, 2005. Union Pacific Railroad, UP - Chronological History. Retrieved March 30, 2005 Jim