Steam helped power the industrial revolution, but steam engines all shared a common problem -- over- heating. Whether a train was mid-journey or a factory halfway through a job, the engine had to be shut down and cooled while a man made the rounds with his oil can and lubricated all the moving points. The delays in such a system were not only inconvenient but costly. Then along came Elijah McCoy.

Born in Canada in 1844, Elijah was the son of fugitive slaves who had escaped from Kentucky to Canada via the Underground Railroad. When he was 15 years old, his parents arranged for him to travel to Scotland for an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering. He returned home to Ypsilanti, Michigan after becoming certified as a mechanical engineer, only to discover that engineering was closed to him because of his race. He was forced to settle for a job as railway fireman, stoking and oiling the engine.

With his training, McCoy was quick to recognize the problems of steam and soon was busy devising a better system. In July 1872, he received a patent for an automatic lubricating cup that delivered a steady flow of oil to all friction points on an engine's moving parts, which allowed trains to run continuously for long periods of time without pausing for main- tenance. The device was widely adopted for use, but McCoy was a perfectionist. For the rest of his life, he continued to improve on his original design, eventually earning well over 50 patents.

A product so important to industry had its imitators from the start, of course. But since dependability was absolutely essential when it came to steam, customers learned to insist that their engines be equipped with "the real McCoy."

While the majority of McCoy's inventions related to lubrication systems, he also developed designs for an ironing board, a lawn sprinkler and other machines. Although McCoy's achievements were recognized in his own time, his name did not appear on the majority of the products that he devised. Lacking the capital with which to manufacture his lubricators in large numbers, he typically assigned his patent rights to his employers or sold them to investors. In 1920, toward the end of his life, McCoy formed the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company to produce lubricators bearing his name. Elijah McCoy died in Detroit, Michigan on October 10, 1929 at the age of 85.