Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Eli H. Janney, aka Eli Hamilton Janney or simply Eli Janney, 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 studied briefly at a seminary. He married Cornelia Hamilton. In the American Civil War, Janney achieved the rank of Major for the Confederate States of America.