1873: A U.S. patent is issued for a new automatic railroad coupler. Within 20 years it is the standard car coupler on every American railroad.
Its inventor, Eli Janney of Alexandria, Virginia, was a Confederate army veteran who went in to the dry-goods business after the war. He used his lunch hours to refine his design.
In the absence of computers and modeling software, Janney whittled from wood the prototype of a coupler that joined rolling stock automatically. It featured opposing couplers that, viewed from above, appeared to be two big knuckles shaking hands. Locked into place, the couplers formed a viselike grip virtually unbreakable until released.
Janney was not the only guy working on building a better railway coupler. When the time came for selecting a design to be the national standard, Janney's coupler was chosen from among 8,000 patented competitors.
Prior to the arrival of Janney's coupler, railway workers used a link-and-pin device, which was both less efficient and fraught with danger since it required hands-on manipulation.
Being injured or killed on the job was an occupational hazard for the 19th-century railroad man. Much of the carnage stemmed from operating the link-and-pin couple.
Between 1877 and 1887, 38 percent of rail-yard injuries and deaths involved coupling accidents. There were 11,000 of these casulaties in 1892 alone.
Once Janney's coupler came into widespread use, yard accidents plummeted. By 1902, a mere 4 percent of all railroad accidents were related to car coupling.
Janney's coupler, later to be known as the Association of American Railroads coupler, was also stronger and more efficient than its predecessors, meaning that longer trains carrying more cargo or passengers were now feasible.
Ka-ching.
As successful inventions go, Janney's coupler was a beaut. It was so well conceived that the basic design, with some modifications, remains in use to this day.
Source: Various
Image: A diagram of a knuckle coupler designed by Eli Janney* from the U.S. Patent Office*
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