In 1937, Marx introduced their one way auto coupler. in 1938, Lionel added the electronic uncoupling capability to the box coupler. American Flyer had the Type X curly que coupler in 1938-39, but it would only couple. In 1939 they introduced the link coupler. What else was out there in the pre war time frame that could actually work well to couple and uncouple automatically.
Steve
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Bing introduced an automatic coupler in 1928, but it could not automatically
uncouple.
Lew Schneider
I read years ago that Joshua Lionel Cowen had an opportunity to acquire a working "O" Gauge knuckle coupler from an inventor in the late 1930's. Mr. Cowen turned it down because it wasn't compatible with latch / Caruso couplers.
Mr. Cowen acquired the coupler when train production ceased (1942-1944). Postwar trains had those couplers. Lionel also offered a T-shaped adapter for low-rise and high-rise latch couplers.
The inventor of Lionels knuckle coupler was Carl Rydin. He once told me that the first time that he tried to sell his invention to Lionel was on the same day that Lionel received the order to stop producing toys and start producing for the war effort. Lionel told him to come back after the war, which he did. I also asked him if he made much money on this sale and he said no, but it paid for his first house.
One I'm sure you are aware of, that immediately followed the Marx one way coupler,
was the tilt-fork coupler, first in metal until after the war, and then in plastic, as
Marx's only automatic coupler. The plastic version also provided a slot to couple with
the early "six inch" cars with tab and slot couplers. And then Marx applied a dummy
knuckle coupler to some of its cars and sets.
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