Elijah McCoy
Mechanical engineer of automatic machine lubrication
At a glance
- Inventor
- Elijah McCoy
- Life
- 1844–1929
- Birthplace
- Colchester, Ontario
- Country
- Canada / United States
- Region
- Canada
- Era
- 1800s
- Fields
- Transportation, Science & Engineering
- Evidence
- Verified
- Records
- 1 in this archive
What they did
Born in Canada to parents who had escaped slavery in Kentucky, trained as a mechanical engineer in Scotland, McCoy patented dozens of lubricating devices that oiled steam engines while they were running.
Historical context
Locomotives and factory engines had to be stopped so an oiler could grease their moving parts. Every stop cost fuel, time and freight capacity.
Obstacles
Despite his engineering training, the only railroad work open to him in Michigan was as a fireman and oiler — the job whose problem he then solved.
The legacy
Continuous lubrication became a design assumption for every heavy machine that followed. McCoy held roughly 57 US patents over his career.
The evidence
US Patent 129,843 — Improvement in lubricators for steam-engines
Elijah McCoy collection records