Elijah McCoy

from Biography.com

Elijah McCoy was a 19th century African-American inventor best known for inventing lubrication devices used to make train travel more efficient.

Elijah McCoy was born on May 2, 1844, in Colchester, Ontario, Canada, to parents who had fled slavery. McCoy trained as an engineer in Scotland as a teenager. Unable to find an engineering position in the United States, he took a job working for a railroad and subsequently invented a lubrication device to make railroad operation more efficient. McCoy died in Detroit, Michigan, on October 10, 1929.

Early Life

Elijah J. McCoy was born on May 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 the United States, settling in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

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