Elijah McCoy
Elijah J. McCoy
Born	May 2, 1844
Died	October 10, 1929

Elijah J. Events 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. Year 1844 ( MDCCCXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Events 680 - Battle of Karbala: Shia Imam Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is decapitated Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. McCoy (May 2, 1843^[1] – October 10, 1929) was an Afro-Canadian inventor and engineer and is known for his many US patents. Events 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. Year 1843 ( MDCCCXLIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Events 680 - Battle of Karbala: Shia Imam Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is decapitated Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Black Canadians', Caribbean Canadians, and African Canadians are designations used for people of Black African descent who reside in An inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method form device or other useful means

After studying engineering in Edinburgh, Scotland, and returning home to Canada, he found work as a fireman and oiler at the Michigan Central Railroad. Edinburgh ( ˈɛdɪnb(ərə Dùn Èideann) is the Capital of Scotland and is its second largest city after Glasgow. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The Michigan Central Railroad was originally incorporated in 1837 to establish rail service between Detroit Michigan and St In a home-based machine shop in Ypsilanti, McCoy invented an automatic lubricator for oiling the steam engines of locomotives and boats. Ypsilanti (ˌɪpsɨˈlænti Ǐp'-sǐ-lǎn-tē but often /ˌjɪpsɨˈlænti/ by outsiders is a city in Washtenaw County in the U A steam engine is a Heat engine that performs Mechanical work using Steam as its Working fluid. A locomotive is a railway Vehicle that provides the motive power for a Train. For this he obtained his first patent, "Improvement in Lubricators for Steam-Engines" (U.S. Patent 129,843 ) on July 23rd, 1872. Events 1632 - Three hundred colonists bound for New France depart from Dieppe France. Year 1872 ( MDCCCLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Similar automatic oilers had been patented previously; one is the displacement lubricator which had already attained widespread use and whose technological descendants continued to be widely used into the 20th century. The displacement lubricator is an automatic oil lubricator for Steam engines first introduced in the United Kingdom in 1860 by John Ramsbottom Lubricators were a boon for railroads, allowing trains to run faster and more profitably with less need to stop for lubrication and maintenance. "Railroad" and "Railway" both redirect here For other uses see Railroad (disambiguation.

McCoy continued to refine his devices and design new ones, and after the turn of the century attracted notice among his African-American contemporaries. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa Booker T. Washington in Story of the Negro (1909) recognized him as having produced more patents than any other black inventor up to that time. Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5 1856 &ndash November 14 1915 was an American educator orator author and leader of the African-American community Year 1909 ( MCMIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting This output ultimately propelled McCoy to a heroic status in the African American community which has persisted to this day. He continued to invent until late in life, obtaining as many as 57 patents mostly related to lubrication, but also including a folding ironing board and a lawn sprinkler. Ironing or smoothing is the work of using a heated tool or tools (an iron) to remove Wrinkles from fabric Lacking the capital with which to manufacture his lubricators in large numbers, he usually assigned his patent rights to his employers or sold them to investors. Lubricators with the McCoy name were not manufactured until 1920, near the end of his career, when he formed the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company. By that time there were several substantial lubricator manufacturers in multiple countries.

McCoy married Ann Elizabeth Stewart in 1868; she died four years later. Year 1868 ( MDCCCLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap He remarried the next year to Mary Eleanor Delaney and moved to Detroit. Elijah McCoy died in Detroit in 1929 at the age of 86, still suffering from injuries from a car accident seven years earlier that killed his second wife. McCoy had been a resident of the Eloise Hospital, a sanitarium in Westland Michigan, also known as the Michigan State Asylum before his death, suffering from dementia. Michigan State Asylum may refer to any number of early mental institutions in the state Dementia (from Latin de- "apart away" + Mens ( genitive mentis) "mind" is the progressive decline ^[2] Elijah McCoy is buried at Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery in Warren, Michigan, and this fact is noted on a Michigan Historical Marker. Warren is a city in Macomb County in the US state of Michigan. ^[3]

First page of US patent 129,843 for Improvement in Lubricators for Steam-Engines

In 1975, Detroit celebrated Elijah McCoy Day, as officials placed a historic marker at the site of his home. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The city also named a street for him. ^[4]

There is no consensus regarding the importance of McCoy's contribution to the field of lubrication. At one extreme, he is credited in some biographical sketches with revolutionizing the railroad or machine industries with his devices. At the same time, he is scarcely mentioned in the old lubrication literature; for example, his name is absent in E. L. Ahrons' Lubrication of Locomotives (1922) which does refer to several other early pioneers and companies of the field. Lubrication is the process or technique employed to reduce wear of one or both surfaces in close proximity and moving relative to each another by interposing a substance called Ernest Leopold Ahrons ( February 12 1866 - March 30 1925) was a British engineer and author Year 1922 ( MCMXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.

According to some sources, the saying the real McCoy, meaning the real thing, derives from Elijah's invention, however this is disputed. "The real McCoy" is an Idiom used throughout much of the English-speaking world to mean "the real thing" or "the genuine article" e The legend is that railroad engineers looking to avoid inferior copies would enquire if a locomotive was fitted with "the real McCoy". This account is disputed as there are other earlier origins to the phrase. Other lubricators were already in widespread use and lubricators with his name were not produced until the 1920's.

In 2006, Canadian playwright Andrew Moodie wrote a play called The Real McCoy which chronicles the life of Elijah, his inventions and his personal tragedies until his death. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.

He is commemorated in two other Michigan historical markers. One is at his home, 5720 Lincoln Avenue, Detroit, Michigan at the intersection of Elijah McCoy Drive. Michigan Registry of Historic Sites: P25170. Listed: November 14, 1974 in front of the Elijah McCoy Homes. The other is at his first workshop, in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Ypsilanti (ˌɪpsɨˈlænti Ǐp'-sǐ-lǎn-tē but often /ˌjɪpsɨˈlænti/ by outsiders is a city in Washtenaw County in the U ^[5]

References

Further reading

• Haber, Louis. Black Pioneers of Science and Invention. {Louis Haber: Books, 2007. ) ISBN 0152085661; ISBN 978-0152085667.
• Haskens, Jim. Outward Dreams: Black Inventors and Their Inventions. (Walker, 1991. ) ISBN 9780802769930.
• Hayden, Robert C. Nine Black American Inventors. (21st Century, 1997. ) 171 pages ISBN 0805021337; ISBN 978-0805021332.
• Klein, Aaron E. The Hidden Contributors: Black Scientists and Inventors in America. (DoubleDay, October 1971) ISBN 0385006411, ISBN 978-0385006415.
• Moodie, Andrew, The Real McCoy. ISBN 9780887549021
• Sullivan, Otha and Haskens, Jim, Black Stars: African American Inventors. (Jossey-Bass. April 21 1998) ISBN 0471148040, ISBN 978-0471148043.
• Towle, Wendy. The Real McCoy: The Life of an African American Inventor. (Scholastic, 1993. ) ISBN 0-590-46134-6.

External links

• World Wide Words's discussion of "the real McCoy"
• The not-so-real McCoy - disputes "Real McCoy" story
• Did Somebody Say McTrash?
• The Fake McCoy
• Elijah McCoy pictures at Argot language center.