Science & invention / Business & brands
Elijah McCoy
1844–1929 · engineer and inventor of automatic lubricators
Canadian-born Black engineer whose automatic lubricators kept North America's locomotives running; he spent his last decades inventing in Detroit.
- Born
Colchester, Ontario, Canada- Died
Eloise (Westland), Michigan
aged 85- Birth name
- Elijah J. McCoy
- Also known as
- Elijah J. McCoy
- Detroit years
- 1882–1929
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
McCoy was born free in Ontario to parents who had escaped slavery in Kentucky and reached Canada by way of Detroit. After training as a mechanical engineer in Scotland, he could find only work as a locomotive fireman and oiler in Michigan, based in Ypsilanti, where his family had settled. In 1872 he patented an automatic lubricator that oiled steam engines while they ran, saving trains frequent stops; by 1899 McCoy lubricators were used on nearly all North American railroads. He moved to Detroit in the early 1880s, kept inventing and eventually held about 57 patents, including a folding ironing board and a lawn sprinkler. His wife Mary helped found the Phillis Wheatley Home for Aged Colored Men in Detroit in 1898. In 1920 he formed the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company. Injured in a car accident that killed Mary, he died in 1929 and is buried in Warren. The popular link to the phrase 'the real McCoy' is a myth.
Highlights
- Patented his automatic lubricator for steam engines in 1872
- About 57 patents over his career
- Formed the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company in Detroit (1920)
- USPTO's Detroit regional office named for him (2012)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Memorial
Elijah J. McCoy Midwest Regional U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
The USPTO's first regional office, opened in Detroit in 2012 and named in his honor.
Buried here · 1929
Detroit Memorial Park East
The Warren cemetery where he is buried.