Elijah McCoy: Excellence Is Something You Carry

Elijah McCoy was born in Colchester, Ontario, to parents who had escaped slavery in Kentucky via the Underground Railroad; the family later moved back to the United States and settled in Michigan. As a young man, McCoy trained as a mechanical engineer in Edinburgh, Scotland — yet on returning to the U.S., the only work he could find was as a railroad fireman, well below what his training qualified him for.

Frustrated by trains that had to stop constantly just to be hand-lubricated, McCoy invented an automatic lubricator in 1872 that used steam pressure to oil moving parts continuously, without ever halting the train. It worked so well, and was so widely and poorly imitated by competitors, that customers reportedly started asking specifically for "the real McCoy" — a phrase that outlived the machine and entered the language as shorthand for the genuine, best version of anything.

What he left behind

• Invented and patented an automatic steam-engine lubricator in 1872, letting trains be oiled while still moving
• His lubricator was adopted across other industries, including drilling and mining
• Later patented additional inventions, including a portable ironing board and a lawn sprinkler

The exact origin of the phrase "the real McCoy" is disputed — some trace it to McCoy's lubricator, others to an unrelated 19th-century whisky brand. Widely associated with him, if not definitively confirmed.

"Excellence is something you carry."

About this set

McCoy's card is one of six in Set 1B — The Patternmakers, part of the Continuum: Builders, Thinkers & Strategists digital postcard collection. The Patternmakers gathers scholars and scientists who broke into fields that were never built with them in mind.

Shop The Patternmakers set or get the Complete Collection (all 12 cards).