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 Janney couplers are a semi-automatic form of railway coupling that allow rail cars and locomotives to be securely linked together without rail workers having to get between the vehicles. They are also known as American, AAR, APT, ARA, MCB, knuck ...

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 Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. Loudoun County's seat is Leesburg. Loudoun ...

. He studied briefly at a seminary. He married Cornelia Hamilton (1833–1889). In the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, Janney achieved the rank of major for the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

, and served on the staff of General Robert E. Lee.tombstone at Ivy Hill Cemetery After the war, he was a dry goods clerk in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

; 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

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

Patents awarded

* Improved Car Coupling, April 21, 1868 * Improvement in Car-Couplings April 29, 1873 * Improvement in Car-Couplings October 20, 1874 * Improvement in Car-Platforms August 20, 1878 * Improvement in Car-Coupling Draw-Bars August 27, 1876 * Improvement in Car-Couplings February 25, 1879 * Improvement in Car-Buffers April 8, 1879 * Improvement in Car-Buffers May 13, 1879 * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Janney, Eli H. 1831 births 1912 deaths American people in rail transportation American mechanical engineers People from Loudoun County, Virginia People from Alexandria, Virginia People of Virginia in the American Civil War Engineers from Virginia

Biography

References

Further reading

Patents awarded