"The Automatic Lubricator for Engines" Invention

ELIJAH MCCOY (1844 - 1929)
"The Automatic Lubricator for Engines" Invention

Elijah McCoy was the inventor of more than fifty patented ideas. His name represented quality. This is where the saying "the real McCoy" became associated with quality products.

Mr. McCoy was born in Canada in a community of escaped slaves. He was born at a time when railroads were changing the nation.

As a young man, McCoy went to Scotland to apprentice as a mechanical engineer. Upon his return to America, He came to Michigan and worked for the Michigan Central Railroad.

Although he was a trained engineer, the only job McCoy could find was stoking the burning fire on steam-powered trains. As a stoker, part of his job was to lubricate the engine by hand. The train had to stop each time he did this. Whenever the train stopped, it caused the trains to be very late.

In 1872, Eugene McCoy used his engineering skills and invented a lubricator to make the job easier and faster. Although the train had to stand still while the lubricator was in use, McCoy's method was faster, safer and more efficient. Ten years later he patented a lubricator that worked while the train was in motion.