Janin

Yale, sailed for Europe in 1856 and the next
year entered the mining academy at Freiberg,
Saxony, where they studied for three years.
Then came a trip of observation through Bo-
hemia and Hungary with Professor Bernhard
Cotta, and a short course at the school of mines
in Paris before they sailed for home in 1861.
They followed their original intention of going
to California to practice mining engineering in
spite of the Civil War in which a brother in the
Confederate army was killed in battle.

An encounter with Apache Indians in Arizona
was among the early experiences of Louis, in
which he displayed courage and coolness. A
narrative of this affair is given by J. Ross
Browne in Harpers Magazine (February 1865)
and also in his Adventures in the Apache Coun-
try (1869). After a brief term in charge of the
Enriquita quicksilver mine in the Coast range,
Janin turned to the treatment of silver ores,
particularly on the Comstock lode in Nevada.
The wasteful methods of extracting silver from
these rich ores were overcome by the ingenious
efforts of Janin and his brother, in spite of dif-
ficulties which included local conservatism and
a disastrous flood that swept away thousands of
tons of the crushed ore in which his money was
invested. Later came miscellaneous and suc-
cessful practice in Mexico and the West, where
he engaged in examining, testing, and develop-
ing mines. Janin was called often to testify in
court about disputed titles to mineral veins. In
these lawsuits, as at the Pacific-Union club in
San Francisco, he was recognized as a man of
brilliant and worldly wisdom. During the seven-
ties he spent a year in Japan advising the gov-
ernment officials about the development of their
gold, silver, and copper mines. Somewhat non-
plussed by their courteous payment of his salary
in gold without applying his advice, he finally
exerted his influence to induce them to send
Japanese students to America and Europe to
learn technology. His generous and cultured
nature attracted many young engineers to him
for training, among them Herbert Hoover and
John Hays Hammond. He recommended Hoo-
ver in 1897 to the British firm of Bewick, More-
ing & Company for the work in Australia that
gave Hoover his start in a successful career.
Janin was married on Dec, 26,186$, to Elizabeth
Marshall of Virginia City, Nev., and acquired
a ranch at Santa Ynez in southern California,
where the family lived. In later life he suffered
ill health and partial blindness. He died in Santa
Barbara of heart disease. His three sons were
also mining engineers.

[For biography, see obituary article by R. W. Ray-

Janney

v 5n Trans< Am> I™*- Mining Engineers, vol
ALIA (1915) '^Mining and Scientific Press, Mar. 14,'
1914 ; Engineering and Mining Journal, Mar. 21, 1914 ;
San Francisco Chronicle, Mar. 8, 1914. An account of
the contributions of the Janins to the metallurgy of the
Comstock ores is included in A. D. Hodges, "Amalga-
mation at the Comstock Lode, Nevada," in Trans. Am.
Inst. Mining Engineers, vol. XIX (1891), and in an
article in the Mining and Scientific Press, May 21,

P.B.M.

JANNEY, ELI HAMILTON (Nov. 12, 1831-
June 16, 1912), inventor, was born in Loudoun
County, Va., the son of Daniel and Elizabeth
(Haines) Janney. His youth was spent on his
father's farm and it was in the local country
school that he obtained his primary education.
Upon completing this, he was sent to the Oneida
Conference Seminary, Cazenovia, N. Y., where
he was a student from 1852 to 1854. He then
returned to his home, engaged in farming for
several years with his father, and eventually ac-
quired a farm of his own. With the outbreak of
the Civil War, he enlisted in the Confederate
army and served throughout that struggle as a
field quartermaster, first on the staff of General
Lee and then with General Long-street, rising to
the rank of major. The war left Janney penniless
— too poor to operate his farm — and he moved
with his family to Fairfax County, just outside
of Alexandria, Va. Here he found employment
as clerk in a drygoods store. In 1863 his atten-
tion was turned to the necessity of improving
the method of coupling railroad cars automati-
cally. Converting his ideas into small models
whittled with his penknife — for Janney had no
mechanical experience — he obtained his first
patent for a coupler on Apr. 21, 1868 (House
Executive Document No. 52, 40 Cong., 3 Sess.,
vol. I, p. 843). The succeeding years found him
at work on improvements of his original idea,
and on Apr. 29, 1873, he obtained his second
patent for what was the basic invention of the
railroad car couplers of the present day (Speci-
fications and Drawings of Patents Issued jrom
the United States Patent Office, April 1873, PP-
1052-53). With the financial aid of friends, he
had some couplers made in Alexandria, Va.,
which were applied to two cars on what is now
the Southern Railroad. They worked so success-
fully that he was able shortly afterward to or-
ganize the Janney Car Coupling Company, of
which he retained control until the expiration of
its last patent. During the first fifteen years of
the company's life little progress was made
toward having the Janney coupler adopted by
the railroads. Exhaustive tests were made by
the Pennsylvania Railroad between 1874 and
1876 and its adoption was decided upon, but it
was not until the Master Car-Builders' Asso-

609