The son of escaped slaves, Elijah McCoy was a mechanical innovator and the namesake behind the legendary saying “the real McCoy.”
Born in Colchester, Ontario, McCoy moved to his parents’ homeland of the United States when he was five. When he was 15 he went to Scotland to study as an apprentice and after a number of years, was a certificed mechanical engineer. He returned to the States after that, but couldn’t get a job in his field.
He worked as an oiler at the Michigan Central Railroad and in his spare time worked on mechanical inventions in a machine shop at his home. He ended up inventing and patenting an automatic lubricator which oiled the steam engines of trains and ships. His was just one of many such inventions around at the time, but McCoy continued to work on various inventions and obtained patents for more than 50 different items. Most of these were related to lubrication, but included the folding ironing board and the lawn sprinkler.
McCoy usually sold his patents to investors or his employers until the 1920s when he formed the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company and produced his own works. Unfortunately, many historians heavily ignore McCoy’s contribution to the advancement of locomotive lubrication.
The famous phrase “the real McCoy” which refers to the real deal is rumoured to be inspired by Elijah McCoy’s oil-drip cup invention. Many companies manufactured similar products which were not as reliable as McCoy’s and engineers would specifically ask for “the real McCoy.” However, this is just a legend and has not been confirmed.
McCoy died at the age of 86 in modern-day Westland, Michigan, in October 1929 leaving behind no heirs.