You’ve likely heard the term “the real McCoy,” but did you know that term refers to one of the fathers of automatic lubrication, Elijah McCoy? Strap in for a brief history lesson from the LH Travis team about this man’s contributions to lubrication history.
From Humble Beginnings to Big Inventions
Elijah McCoy was born in 1844 in the Canadian town of Colchester. His parents were fugitive slaves who had escaped to Canada through the Underground Railroad, and in 1859, they sent him to Scotland to become a mechanical engineer.
After he left Scotland about 1870, he came to the U.S., where his family lived in Ypsilanti, Michigan. There, the only work he could find was as a boilerman and oiler with the Michigan Central Railroad. In his free time, he would work on inventions. Inspired by the inefficiency of railroad lubrication, requiring the train to be stopped and started every time it was lubricated, he invented and patented the automatic lubricator in 1872.
This automatic lubricator, the precursor to modern automatic lubrication systems, used gravity to move oil from a central reservoir down pipes to where it was required. In 1898, he would create an additional patent that added a sight glass, allowing the rate of oil feed to be reserved. This was one of the earliest forms of lubrication monitoring.
Elijah McCoy’s Influence
McCoy’s automatic lubricator was a big hit, and by 1899 it was in use on almost all North American railroads. McCoy would go on to patent a variety of inventions throughout his lifetime, most of them devoted to improvements in lubrication technologies. McCoy is also recognized as having produced more patents than any other black inventor of his time. It is in part due to these accomplishments that the phrase “the real McCoy” came into use in the late 1800s.
With LH Travis, You Always Get “the Real McCoy”
Without Elijah McCoy’s contribution, automatic lubrication might not exist today. At LH Travis, we honor that spirit everyday by always providing high quality work and authentic systems and parts from trustworthy brands. Learn more about what makes us the real deal by contacting us today!
