Elijah McCoy

Google celebrates the life and accomplishments of Elijah McCoy, a Canadian-born inventor who sparked the term the real McCoy.

The inventor patented the automatic lubricator in 1872. NPR reports McCoy’s parents escaped slavery in Kentucky using the Underground Railroad, before settling in Canada and giving birth to Elijah in 1844. At the time, engines had to be stopped, lubricated, then restarted again, which was wildly inefficient.