There was a man named Andrew Beard. He was born a slave in Brimingham, AL in 1849. Andrew was given his freedom at the age of fifteen and married at sixteen. He invented a device that made railroad work safer. Even though he had no formal education or training, Mr. Beard learned to build machines by watching people do their work. He built flour mills, plows and motors as well as the rail car coupler. Mr. Beard hired people to work in the flour mills he built. There they turned wheat into flour. He also designed plows. In 1884, he sold a plow for $4000 and another for $5200. With this money, Andrew Beard went into real estate and earned $30,000.
Mr. Beard saw that people were being badly injured linking railroad cars, and wanted to make something that would stop railroad cars from crashing together and hurting people. Andrew Beard invented the automatic coupling system, known as the Jenny Coupler, that is still in use today in the railroad industry. It is good that he did, because it saved countless people from huting their hands and arms. This invention allowed the cats to hook up automatically so the people would not have to be involved in hooking them up.
Mr. Beard died in 1921.
I think he was a great inventor, because he built machines without much education and invented something that would help stop people from being injured by railroad cars.
by
Tashim Walker
February 11, 2002 |
