November 23, 2005

November 23, 1897

On this date, former slave Andrew Beard patented the "jenny coupler", which is still in use to hook railroad cars together safely.

Posted by Jennifer at November 23, 2005 03:25 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Wow! Your name is attached to trains. That's the penultimate of cool.

Posted by: Jim at November 23, 2005 05:46 PM

It sounds kind of kinky to me...like it's some kind of sex toy. The Jenny Coupler.

Posted by: Paul at November 23, 2005 07:44 PM

Sounds like the name of a dating service with a limited clientel.

Posted by: Tuning Spork at November 23, 2005 08:23 PM

Well, my name is not Jenny. And my dad said they're just called "couplers" now. :-(

Posted by: Jennifer at November 23, 2005 09:18 PM

Happy Thanksgiving Jenny-err...ferr... Jennifer!

Yeah, that's the ticket...

Posted by: Tuning Spork at November 24, 2005 11:33 AM

There is, at least among model railroaders, a tendency to call them "knuckle couplers".

One of the explanations for the phrase "The Real McCoy" references another railroad item designed by a black man, an automatic oiler. Altho not truly integrated in those days, railroading offered more opportunities for minorities than many other industries.

Posted by: triticale at November 27, 2005 05:10 PM


Jew