Attached is a little piece I did for another website years ago. It has not been fact-checked, so you will all have to take it as it is. I will try to add a couple of pics also.
Elijah McCoy was born on May 2, 1843 (or possibly 1844?) in Colchester, Ontario. His parents were escaped slaves from Kentucky and had made it to Canada on what was called the Underground Railway. The father, George, enlisted in the army after coming to Canada. This must have brought some benefits to the family as they were able to send Elijah, at age 15, to Edinburgh, Scotland to an apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer. On returning from Scotland, he ended up getting a job as a locomotive fireman on the Michigan Central out of Ypsilanti, Michigan around 1870.
From day-to-day observation, he could see that locomotives were lacking a good means of lubrication, much of which had to be done when the train was stopped. Others had been working on effective means of on-the-go lubrication, but it was McCoy who invented and patented the automatic, displacement lubricator, U.S. Patent #129843, on July 23, 1872. A Canadian patent, #3499, was issued in 1874.
McCoy went on to a long life of inventing, amassing some 57 patents. Many of these were for improved lubricating systems for steam power of all kinds. He sometimes assigned his patent rights to other companies for manufacture but later formed his own company, Elijah McCoy Manufacturing. The McCoy oiler was thought of as one of the best of the oilers available in the early days. At any rate, his lubricators are said to have brought about the saying, "The Real McCoy." There is some dispute about this, though in early railway and steam circles, this term was used to guarantee that you had a genuine McCoy oiler. However, this phrase may have come from advertising of a brand of Scotch whiskey called, "The Real McCay". People knew this slogan and substituted McCoy! (Actually, there is no real substitute for good Scotch whiskey, or so I'm told!) McCoy evidently regarded that one of his best inventions was a graphite lubricator that used powdered graphite suspended in oil. This was patented in 1916 and was meant for superheated locomotives.
As for who was first, it would appear Mr. McCoy got to the U.S. Patent Office first, so too bad on the other guys. Perhaps though, his years in Edinburgh gave him access to developments in the UK as they were, in some ways, ahead of North America in locomotive development by a few years. There was some mention that after he got his patent, he worked as an industrial consultant for the Detroit Lubricator Co. Did Detroit make the Real McCoy?
There is Canadian patent #109055, issued in 1907, that lists McCoy as the inventor, but the patent owner was listed as the Ypsilanti Lubricator Co. Sadly, there are no photos or descriptions available under a search of that patent number.
Elijah McCoy died on October 10, 1929.
A couple of images are included, if they will upload, are, of the original McCoy oiler and of Elijah himself; the original patent description; and a later patent #130305. (First picture)
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