9/12/2023 0 Comments Steam engine inventor black![]() On October 10, a Belgian sailor aboard a North Sea steamer spotted a body floating in the water upon further investigation, it turned out that the body was Diesel’s. Unable to work, he died seven years later, poor and largely unrecognised.On September 29, 1913, Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the engine that bears his name, disappears from the steamship Dresden while traveling from Antwerp, Belgium to Harwich, England. ![]() Two years later, he and his wife were involved in a car accident that killed her and left him with severe physical and mental scars. In 1920, he finally set up his own company, The Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company, enabling him to fully capitalise on his inventions, but tragedy soon struck. As with many such expressions, the truth is murky and lost to time.Įven in his 70s, McCoy continued improving and patenting his devices, inventing the graphite lubricator in 1916, which used oil mixed with powdered graphite to lubricate the bearings on the newer ‘superheater’ locomotives. In McCoy’s favour, however, was the quality of his design, and it’s often claimed that railwaymen’s demands for ‘the real McCoy’ lubricators led to the coining of that phrase. The elegance of the lubricating oil cup also led to other problems – it was very easy to copy and ‘pirated’ versions soon appeared on everything from steam trains to ocean liners. Unable to secure the financial backing to set up his own factory, he was forced to assign his patents to companies he worked for or sell them to investors. In all he would be granted 57 patents, mainly in the realm of engine lubrication, but also including a collapsible ironing board and a lawn sprinkler.ĭespite this business success, McCoy failed to make much of a fortune. Ten years later, we find him in Detroit, working as a consultant engineer for numerous companies and continuing to invent. In 1872 McCoy took out a patent for his device and finally had the money to begin his engineering practice proper. It also reduced wear on bearings, increased the speed of the engines and reduced journey times. The lubricating oil cup allowed trains to run for hours without stopping. Perhaps only an engineer working in such close contact with engines could have come up with such an elegant solution. This device consisted of an oil reservoir with a lid and a feed pipe in the base that dripped oil onto the bearing continuously through an adjustable valve. The answer he came up with was surprisingly simple – the lubricating oil cup. This process was expensive in fuel and time, and there clearly had to be a better way of keeping the trains running on time, so McCoy set out to find it in his garden workshop. Every few miles the train had to stop while the fireman oiled the axle bearings and cylinders, as the lubricants quickly wore off. His job revolved around keeping them moving.Īt the time, the greatest enemy of the steam engine was friction. At least this job brought him into contact with the great engineering masterpiece of his day – the steam engine. It was impossible to practise his profession and he was forced to take a job as a fireman on the Michigan Central Railroad at Ypsilanti. Yet life for a black engineer was hardly easy. So, aged just 15, he travelled to non-segregated Scotland, where after five years of apprenticeship and study he qualified as a mechanical engineer.īy the time he returned to North America the Civil War was over, slavery was illegal and his family had moved back to the US. George and Emilia (sometimes called Mildred) escaped to Detroit and then on to Canada, where Elijah and nine of his siblings could be born free.Įven here, being free wasn’t the same as being equal and Elijah could only receive an education in segregated schools, but in 1859 he received what would be his great ‘break’ – the chance to go to Europe and study in Edinburgh. Yet Elijah was born free, thanks to his fugitive slave parents, George and Emilia, and the shadowy network of anti-slavery campaigners who helped them escape from the South via the ‘Underground Railroad’. Despite this, one navigated the obstacles in his path and helped oil the wheels of America’s coming of age.Įlijah McCoy was probably born in 1844, before the Civil War, and under other circumstances might have expected to spend his entire life as a slave on a Southern plantation. For a black American in the mid-19th century, the latter was in very short supply. ![]() There are two things you need to become an engineer – ability and opportunity.
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