![]() Called the lubricating cup, or lubricating oil cup, he patented it in 1872. He came up with an automatic lubricator for oiling the steam engines of locomotives and ships while they were running, enabling them to run faster and more profitably. While he worked for the Michigan Central Railroad, McCoy also endeavored in a home-based machine shop to develop a way to lubricate the train while it was moving. His job was to oil the axles, bearings, and other moving parts of the train, when it was stopped, and to shovel coal into the firebox of the cab. Instead of immediately embarking upon the career he had prepared for, McCoy began working for the Michigan Central Railroad as a fireman. At a time immediately following the Civil War, he had difficulty finding a job as an engineer because of his race. In 1866, at the age of 22, McCoy returned from Scotland and settled in Ypsilanti, Michigan. At the age of 15, McCoy was sent by his parents to attend school in Edinburgh, Scotland where he was certified as a mechanical engineer. As a child, he became interested in mechanical devices, often taking apart machines and reassembling them. His parents escaped from slavery in Kentucky to Canada on the Underground Railroad. McCoy was born in Colchester, Ontario, Canada on May 2, 1844. _ Source Wikipedia Elijah J.Elijah McCoy was the inventor of the lubricating oil cup that allowed railroad steam engines to be lubricated without stopping the train, saving time and money. 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. Elijah McCoy died in Detroit in 1929 at the age of 85, still suffering from injuries from a car accident seven years earlier that killed his second wife. He remarried the next year to Mary Eleanor Delaney and moved to Detroit. McCoy married Ann Elizabeth Stewart in 1868 she died four years later. By that time there were several substantial lubricator manufacturers in multiple countries. Lubricators with the McCoy name were not manufactured until 1920, near the end of his career, when he formed the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company. ![]() 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. 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. This prolific output ultimately propelled McCoy to a heroic status in the African American community which has persisted to this day. ![]() Washington in Story of the Negro (1909) recognized him as having produced more patents than any other black inventor up to that time. First page of McCoy's patent on steam engine lubricatorsMcCoy continued to refine his devices and design new ones, and after the turn of the century attracted notice among his African-American contemporaries. Lubricators were a boon for railroads, allowing trains to run faster and more profitably with less need to stop for lubrication and maintenance. 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. For this he obtained his first patent, "Improvement in Lubricators for Steam-Engines" (U.S. Working in a home-based machine shop in Ypsilanti, McCoy invented an automatic lubricator for oiling the steam engines of locomotives, boats, and so on. In 1870, he found work as a fireman and oiler at the Michigan Central Railroad. McCoy had wanted to work as an engineer but was repeatedly frustrated in this goal due to racial discrimination. He studied engineering in Edinburgh, Scotland from age 16 and then immigrated to the United States, settling in Ypsilanti, Michigan. When he was three, McCoy's family moved back to the U.S., settling in Detroit, Michigan. In return he was awarded 160 acres (0.65 km²) of land for his service. George McCoy enlisted in the British forces. These were demanding indeed, for they operated at high temperatures and pressures.Įlijah McCoy was born in Colchester in Essex County, Ontario, Canada, to George McCoy and Mildred Goins, both runaway slaves from Kentucky in the United States, who escaped on the Underground Railroad to Colchester. He kept pace with the progress of locomotive design, devising new lubricating systems that served the steam engines of the early twentieth century. Made important contributions to the design of railroad locomotives after the Civil War.
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