the.com/coupler
the unsung hero standing between your train cars and total mechanical divorce
means A coupler is a device that joins two things together, most famously the mechanism that links railway cars but also any fitting that connects pipes, hoses, or machine parts.
from From 'couple' plus the agent suffix '-er' — one that couples. 'Couple' itself came through Old French 'cople' from Latin 'copula,' meaning a bond, tie, or link (the same 'copula' that grammar borrowed for the little verb that joins subject to predicate). So a coupler is, quite literally, a maker of bonds — whether between lovers, clauses, or boxcars.
- deadly history
- Link-and-pin couplers crushed countless brakemen's hands and arms
- the hero
- Janney's 1873 knuckle design saved thousands of limbs
- self-acting
- Modern ones lock automatically on impact, like a handshake
- beyond rails
- Optical couplers move signals between circuits using only light
- space duty
- Spacecraft docking systems are couplers for orbiting machines
saic-dyncorp joint venture — won $3.6 billion pentagon contract in 2008 to supply military couplers and connectors
eaton hydraulics couplers — manufactured thousands of hydraulic flat-face couplers for nasa space shuttle program
amtrak passenger car couplers — replaced older coupler systems on northeast corridor trains in early 2000s for safety