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Inventor

In 1897, Andrew J. Beard received $50,000 for and invention which has since prevented the death or maiming of countless railroad men.
While working in an Alabama railroad yard, Beard had seen men lose hands, even arms, in accidents occurring during the manual coupling of railroad cars. The system in use involved the dropping of a metal pin into place when two cars crashed together. Men were often caught between cars and crushed to death during this split-second operation.

Beard's invention, called the "Jenny Coupler," was an automatic device which secured two cars by merely bumping them together.