The Real McCoy
Elijah McCoy was an outstanding mechanical engineer. He invented the self-lubricating machine that advanced many industries around the country. He was born in 1843 to former slaves George and Mildred McCoy. They escaped from slavery in Kentucky on the Underground Railroad and went to Colchester, Ontario in Canada where they lived for many years. Later the family moved back to the U.S. and settled about a mile from Ypsilanti, Michigan. Elijah’s father worked hard to get his son educated. He sent him to Edinburgh, Scotland at the age of 15. Young Elijah was trained there in engineering. Although he had outstanding credentials, he was repeatedly denied a position in engineering because of the color of his skin. Finally, he accepted a position as a fireman for the Michigan Central Railroad. The company gave him the menial job of shoveling coal into the engine and oiling all of the train’s moving parts.
Elijah McCoy
Elijah became bored with this job and he wondered to himself: “Why can’t this train lubricate itself?” So he began to experiment with a mechanical self-lubricating device. In 1870, he became famous in the field of mechanical engineering. He started the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company in Detroit, Michigan. Here he invented the first automatic lubricator called the lubricator cup. His invention allowed trains to move faster and more efficiently. McCoy became known as the “Father of Lubrication.” He was granted a United States patent number 129,843 on July 23, 1872. His device allowed small amounts of oil to drip continuously onto the moving parts of a machine while it was in operation. Prior to his invention, all motorized machinery had to be periodically brought to a complete stop so that lubricants could be applied by hand. McCoy’s lubricator cup became very important to the industry because it reduced time and labor costs and increased business profits.
Although Elijah McCoy’s invention was important to many U.S. industries, he faced racial prejudice and was denied full recognition of his achievement. In a book entitled Black Pioneers of Science and Invention author Louis Haber wrote the following: “After finishing his apprenticeship in Scotland, McCoy returned to the United States a full-fledged mechanical engineer. However, here he encountered race prejudice. Companies employing mechanical engineers at that time were unwilling to hire a Black man in such a highly skilled position.” Despite this treatment, Elijah McCoy was determined to continue his work. Diagrams of his invention can be found in many books on science and invention in the United States.
In time, anyone who owned a self-lubricating machine bragged of having the “Real McCoy.” This is an expression that people still use today. McCoy improved upon this first model with more advanced ones. For the next twenty-five years, he made various changes and patented more than fifty different automatic lubricators. Later he specialized in lubricating devices for special kinds of machinery such as air brakes and steam engines. He received invitations from around the country asking him to serve as a consultant or lecturer. Many of these companies were not aware of his race. They were surprised to find out that he was a Black man. There were times when they would cancel his scheduled appearances because of racial prejudice. Some companies even refused to use his lubricator although they needed it badly. Even in the face of this prejudice McCoy continued to improve on his invention. McCoy’s ideas are still used today in cars, trains, planes, and many other machines. The book entitled Black Inventors of America written by McKinley Burt, Jr. noted that millions of machines all over the world have been equipped with some version of his invention, including the moon exploration vehicles.
McCoy’s invention will always be remembered for modernizing the industrial world. Other inventors were offering substitute lubricators, but the railroad purchasing agents would not accept them. They wanted the “Real McCoy.” The next time you hear someone use these words remember to remind them of this outstanding African American. Elijah McCoy was one of the greatest inventors in America.