Craftsmanship & quality

Elijah McCoy Lane

Honoring Elijah McCoy

Elijah McCoy (1844–1929) was born in Canada to parents who had escaped slavery in Kentucky via the Underground Railroad. Trained as a mechanical engineer in Scotland, he could only find work as a railroad fireman in Michigan — where he invented an automatic lubricator that let engines run without stopping. He earned 57 patents over his lifetime. His quality was so trusted that the phrase "the real McCoy" came to mean the genuine article. Elijah challenges us to make every product the real thing.