Eastern Railroad Discussion > Willison-couplers

Before or during WW I the Willison-coupler was invented (in USA?). It was to late to become the standard coupler in USA.
However it was the patern for the Soviet Automatic coupler, SA3.
I have been told by a salesman for the american company Naco that they sold 10000 Willison-couplers to Soviet Union in the late 20ies or early 30ies and no repeat orders. From the Willison-couplers the soviets developed first the SA2- and later the SA3-coupler. But still the SA3 can couple together with the Willison-couplers as I heve seen in Sweden and what probably also can be seen in Iran,(Irak?) and Egypt.
Today the Willison couplers are made in France by LLOYD ABC COUPLERS and probably also in US by Meridan Rail(former ABC-NACO).
Questions:
1. Who was Willison?
2. Is the discription above right or is there something wrong or missing?
PS The Willison principle is in all (or most) ways superior to the principles of the AAR-coupler.
I have been told that somewhere in the web there is a discription of the story about the SA3-couplers and their development in russian but I am unable to find it.

In essence this is correct, but there was Czarist era coupler using similar principals from gent named Ivan Kreikof(v)ski (could have been Russ-Swedo/Alleman) that was used on passenger trains that coupled steam lines as well as train air. There were problems with it's massive nature as well as seals. There also was problems with obtaining seals under operating conditions with early Williston couplers. That the Russians overcame them is a tribute to their perseverance and also a function of the external buffers, which were not part of NA's combined draft/buffering systems.

The Willison and SA3 do not have any brake-air conections and of course no problems with leaky packings.