Andrew Jackson Beard
Andrew Jackson Beard (1849–1921) was an African-American inventor. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio for his work on railroad coupler design.
Biography
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 got married and became a farmer in a small city outside of Birmingham. While in Birmingham, 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, with which he began to invest in real estate.
Following his stint in real-estate, Andrew Beard began to work with and study engines. In 1892, he filed a patent for an improvement to the rotary steam engine.
Andrew Beard invented the JENNY coupler for railroad cars not to be mistaken with the JANNEY coupler which he is sometimes falsely cited as the inventor of the automatic railroad coupler, also known as the knuckle coupler, but this was invented by Eli H. Janney, a former Confederate Major who was awarded a patent for his revolutionary invention in 1873.U.S. Patent 138,405 Beard's patent relating to the automatic coupler was one of some 8,000 variant patents awarded between Janney's invention in 1873 and the turn of the 20th century.[1]
Little is known about the period of time from Beard's last patent application in 1897 up until his death. He died in 1921.