Elijah McCoy – The Real McCoy
Elijah McCoy was denied jobs he was qualified for because of his color. Despite that, he didn't allow discrimination to stand in his way. Elijah McCoy saw a problem that was costing his employer a lot of money, and set out to the solve the problem using his engineering background. Like most inventors, McCoy was very curious, and he looked at how work was done and found a way to make it more efficient.
Name: Elijah J. McCoy
Birth Date: May 2, 1844 – October 10, 1929
Job Functions: Inventor and Engineer
Fields: Entrepreneurship, Engineering
Known For: Inventing the lubricator cup
Who Is the Real McCoy? You have heard the phrase the “real McCoy” or perhaps you have even used it yourself, but what is its origin? The phrase the “real McCoy,” which means the “real thing” may have come from Black Canadian, Elijah McCoy. Born between March 27, 1844, and May 2, 1844 in Colchester, Ontario, Canada, Elijah McCoy’s parents were fugitive slaves from Kentucky who escaped in Canada using the Underground Railroad.
His father, George McCoy, enlisted in the British army and fought in the 1837 rebellion in Canada and was rewarded with 160 acres of farmland near Colchester, Ontario for his loyal service. This also provided an opportunity for Elijah McCoy to study in Edinburgh years later.
Like most inventors, as a child, McCoy was very curious, and constantly pulling apart things to see how they worked and putting them back together again. In 1860, on the cusp of the American Civil War, and at great financial sacrifice, his parents sent the teenager to Edinburgh, Scotland to apprentice and receive the credentials of a master mechanic and engineer. When McCoy completed his studies, he joined his family in Ypsilanti, Michigan where they had relocated when slaves were freed at the end of the American Civil War.
Although he was a qualified mechanical engineer, because of his race, he could not secure a job that aligned with his level of education, so he had accepted a job in 1870 as a fireman and oiler on the Michigan Central Railroad. One of the responsibilities of his job required that McCoy pours oil onto the parts in the engine compartment. The process was not only inefficient, but the frequent stopping of the train resulted in a cost of 25 percent of their profits.
Elijah McCoy thought about the problem, and dreamed of a device that would lubricate the engine automatically. He toiled away in his workshop to solve the problem. Because of his mechanical engineering background, McCoy was able to build an engine that had channels running through it that were connected to one another, allowing oil to flow through the engine. McCoy recognized that the oil would have to flow steadily so that it wouldn’t flood the engine and cause damage. He invented a lubricator drip cup that allowed the oil to flow out at a steady rate. The invention also prevented potentially deadly engine fires. He applied for and received US Patent No. 129,843 on June 23, 1872 for “Improvement in Lubricators for Steam-Engines.” Over the next two years, McCoy received three patents for improvements to the lubricator cup.
Michigan Central Railroad, the company McCoy worked for was the first to use his invention. Up until 1915, Elijah McCoy’s engine lubricator cup was standard equipment on trains and steamships. It was the popular belief at the time, that train engineers would ask if the lubricator device was “the real McCoy” because there were many imitations, some of which were inferior. And railroad purchasing agents often insisted on buying “the real McCoy.”
What makes Elijah McCoy so memorable, is that his lubricator cup revolutionized the locomotive industry, and the device was also adaptable to other types of steam engines, which were used in factories and on steam ships. Without the forced stops, rains were able to travel faster, which promoted economic growth. And McCoy is also unique because unlike other Black pioneers and inventors, he received a formal education in Scotland, where he won the credentials of a master mechanic and engineer.
Over his lifetime, he received 57 patents — 28 of which he held himself. Although millions of dollars were made using his inventions, Elijah McCoy never made much money from them and died penniless. He sold most of his patents for a fraction of their actual worth because he needed money.
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This first appeared on Huffington Post Canada
