Eli Hamilton Janney (November 12, 1831 – June 16, 1912) was the inventor of the modern

knuckle coupler Knuckle 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. Originally known as Janney couplers (the original patent n ...

that replaced link and pin couplers on

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

n 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. The county seat is Leesburg. Loudoun County ...

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

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Janney achieved the rank of major for the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), also known as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or Dixieland, was an List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United State ...

, 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 ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

; 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 The Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (WABCO) was an American company founded on September 28, 1869 by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Earlier in the year he had invented the railway air brake in New York state. A ...

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