Andrew Jackson Beard

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Andrew Jackson Beard (1849-1921) was an African-American inventor. He was a man of many talents. In his 72 years of life, he was a farmer, carpenter, blacksmith, real estate capitalist, railroad worker, and inventor. Beard was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio for his contributions to rail transport coupler design. This was his most noted invention.

The diagram from Beard's 1897 coupler patent.

Beard's design, documented in U.S. Patent 594,059 , awarded November 23, 1897, is sometimes cited as the first successful "knuckle" type coupler, but his design is an improvement on an earlier patent (U.S. Patent 138,405 ) awarded to Eli H. Janney in 1873.

Born in Alabama in 1849, Andrew Beard spent the first fifteen years of his life as a slave on a small farm in Alabama. A year after he was emancipated, he married and became a farmer in a small city outside of Birmingham. After an unbearable trip to Montgomery to sell bushels of apples, Andrew Beard decided to quit the farming business for a "real job." As a result of his extensive farming experience, he was able to develop and champion his first invention, a plow. Three years later, he patented a second plow. These two inventions earned him almost $10,000 and enabled him to enter the lucrative real-estate business.

Following his stint in real-estate, Andrew Beard began tinkering with another invention for an improved rotary steam engine. In 1892, he patented a rotary steam engine.U.S. Patent 478,271 awarded July 5, 1892. He claimed his engine was cheaper and easier to build and operate than conventional steam engines.

Andrew Beard's most notable invention was the automatic railroad car coupler or "Jenny Coupler." As an ex-railroad employee and amputee, he was empathetic to the need for this device. Before automatic car couplers, railroad workers had to manually hook railroad cars together by dropping a pin between the two connectors of the engaging cars. Often, the workers could not move away from them fast enough and many, including Andrew Beard, lost limbs after becoming wedged between the cars. In a first person narrative, Andrew Beard said, "I got a really good idea on how to prevent people like me from injuring, maiming or even crushing guys to death between the cars."^{[citation needed]} He revolutionized the industry because his invention enabled two cars to lock automatically by bumping into each othher. This process eliminated the need for the dangerous, manual task. His invention was patented in 1897 and earned him $50,000.^{[citation needed]}

Little is known about Andrew Beard after his invention at the end of the century. He died in 1921.