Elijah McCoy: The Original “Real McCoy”

‘‘I AM the ‘real McCoy’! Do not try me. You cannot fake me. Your dollar store drippers are fails.”

Back in the 1800’s, train engineers got fed up engines either overheating from going too fast or freezing up solid.

Those engines needed oil dripped on the parts juuust right to work perfectly.

Only one Black man, son of escaped slaves, train fireman himself, a machine that could do that. It dripped that oil on hot train engines at a perfect rate. Engines sped along perfectly.

Engineers were willing to pay for that small part.

But fakers kept trying to rip off the Black inventor - driving the engineers nuts. They said, “We want the REAL McCOY!”