Mr. Speaker, Elijah McCoy was born in Colchester township to runaway slaves who fled Kentucky via the underground railroad. He studied mechanical engineering in Scotland, but racial discrimination denied him the opportunity to be a railroad engineer. Instead, he became a fireman-oiler with the Michigan Central Railway. Here he set about to remedy the poor on-time performance of railways from the need to stop to oil joints.
At his home machine shop, Elijah invented an automatic lubricator, receiving a US patent in 1872. His “Improvement for Steam Engines” allowed trains to run faster with less maintenance, allowing for the first time reliable scheduling and paving the way for our modern economy, a feat which changed the world as they knew it.
His genius for the automatic lubricator was most imitated but never equalled, leading businesses in search of his authentic article to ask for “the real McCoy”.
Today, during Black History Month, we not only celebrate a gifted African Canadian inventor, but I call upon the House to support me in having Elijah McCoy named a national historic figure.