Eli H. Janney
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For other persons of the same name, see Eli Janney.
- For other persons named Janney, see Janney (disambiguation).
Eli H. Janney, also known as Eli Hamilton Janney or simply Eli Janney (November 12, 1831 – June 16, 1912), was the inventor of the modern knuckle coupler that replaced link and pin couplers on North American railroads.
He was born in 1831 to Daniel Janney and Elizabeth Avis Haines in Loudoun County, Virginia. He married Cornelia Hamilton (1833-1889). He studied briefly at a seminary.
In the American Civil War, Janney achieved the rank of Major for the Confederate States of America.
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 U.S. Patent 138,405 on April 29, 1873.
He died on June 16, 1912 in Alexandria, Virginia.
[edit] External link
[edit] References
- 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.
- White, John H., Jr., (Spring 1986), America's most noteworthy railroaders, Railroad History, The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, 154, p. 9-15.
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