BHS Day 2: Elijah McCoy

Hi! If this is your first year spending Black History Month with me, then let me start out today's post by explaining how things will go. I choose seven categories to focus on throughout the month, and every Friday is the Military, Technology and Science, or MTS, Spotlight. I choose someone from each field and each Friday, we'll learn about them. You'll see the other categories in the next few days--or now, if you'd like to take a trip through the BHS archives (cheap plug, I know). 
Today, we're focusing on the T part of the MTS Spotlight and turning our attention to a Black inventor who made groundbreaking inventions in the engineering field. If you've ever heard the now classic phrase, "the real McCoy," we're going to meet one of its namesakes today. 

Name: Elijah McCoy, 1844--1929

Profession: Engineer and inventor

Why is the Spotlight on him today? For his game-changing inventions in the railroad industry and for his role as a pioneer for Black inventors

Notables and accomplishments:
--was born to fugitive slave parents who fled to Canada from Kentucky via the Underground Railroad
--created 57 patents throughout his career
--received his formal education and position as master engineer and mechanic in Scotland
--received his first job in the American rail industry as a fireman and oiler due to racial tensions keeping him from becoming an engineer, despite his qualifications
--due to the work as an oiler, he was able to make one of his first and most notable inventions when he created a device to automatically oil the train's engine while it was still moving, revolutionizing the way trains ran at that time and saving the lives of many (many engineers and oilers lost limbs working for the railroad and an automatic lubricating system kept a lot of workers safe), while increasing the amount of money the trains could make by no longer having to constantly stop for re-oiling
--he later revisited this invention and updated it to further improve the way trains ran by allowing the lubricator to handle different methods people used to power their trains, which had changed since his first lubricating device
--created over 50 patents at least partially to do with steam engines
--at one time was recognized as holding the most patents of any other Black inventor
--became a signature phrase in common vernacular to suggest someone wants an original or real item rather than a replica or knockoff; the phrase is at least partially attributed to McCoy after his oil-drip cup became the target of cheaper quality knockoffs, leading engineers to request "the real McCoy" when trying to get drip cups for their trains
--towards the end of his career, received a patent for a folding ironing board and a self-operated lawn sprinkler
--after giving away the rights to some of his inventions or selling them to other investors, he finally established the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company near the end of his career in order to self-distribute his other inventions
--made a point to hire young Black men to work at his factory in order to give them steady work
--despite the proof of his groundbreaking changes to how train engines ran for his time, is constantly omitted from literature on the history of lubrication systems
--was posthumously honored with Elijah McCoy Day in Detroit and renamed a street after him, complete with an iron cast sign


Further reading links:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Quote of the Day:  "When you want the best, ask for the real McCoy." --the quote said to have started the 'real McCoy' phrase