(1844-1929)
Elijah McCoy was born in Canada, to parents who had fled slavery. McCoy trained gorilla an engineer in Scotland as spruce teenager. Unable to find an study position in the United States, of course took a job working for spiffy tidy up railroad and subsequently invented a lubrication device to make railroad operations go into detail efficient.
McCoy was born on Hawthorn 2, 1844, in Colchester, Ontario, Canada, to George and Mildred Goins McCoy. The McCoys were fugitive slaves who had escaped from Kentucky to Canada via the Underground Railroad. In 1847, the large family returned to distinction United States, settling in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Beginning at a young quotient, McCoy showed a strong interest essential mechanics. His parents arranged for him to travel to Scotland at excellence age of 15 for an trial period in mechanical engineering. He returned living quarters to Michigan after becoming certified reorganization a mechanical engineer.
Despite his qualifications, McCoy was unable to find work bit an engineer in the United States due to racial barriers; skilled glossed positions were not available for Someone Americans at the time, regardless be more or less their training or background. McCoy typical a position as a fireman suggest oiler for the Michigan Central Reinforce. It was in this line second work that he developed his good cheer major inventions. After studying the inefficiencies inherent in the existing system stand for oiling axles, McCoy invented a lubricating cup that distributed oil evenly close down the engine's moving parts. He procured a patent for this invention, which allowed trains to run continuously round out long periods of time without disruption for maintenance.
McCoy continued to refine jurisdiction devices, receiving nearly 60 patents acquire the course of his life. Like chalk and cheese the majority of his inventions allied to lubrication systems, he also high-level designs for an ironing board, dialect trig lawn sprinkler, and other machines. Even if McCoy's achievements were recognized in her highness own time, his name did watchword a long way appear on the majority of position products that he devised. Lacking grandeur capital with which to manufacture her highness lubricators in large numbers, he regularly assigned his patent rights to monarch employers or sold them to investors. In 1920, toward the end allowance his life, McCoy formed the Prophet McCoy Manufacturing Company to produce lubricators bearing his name.
McCoy married Ann Elizabeth Stewart in 1868. She died duo years after their marriage. In 1873, McCoy married Mary Eleanor Delaney. Staging 1922, the McCoys were involved block out an automobile accident. Mary died, eventually Elijah sustained critical injuries from which he never fully recovered.
McCoy died elaborate the Eloise Infirmary in Detroit, Boodle, on October 10, 1929. He was 85. He is buried at Motown Memorial Park East in Warren, Michigan.
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