Consumers Wanted the Real McCoy
When customers ask for the "real McCoy," they are asking for the original product, no an imitation. This comes from the experience of a black inventor, Elijah McCoy. Elijah was the son of fugitive slaves, George and Mildred McCoy, who fled a Kentucky plantation via the underground railroad and arrived in Detroit, Michigan, in 1841. Later, the family moved to Ontario, Canada, where Elijah was born. George McCoy opened a cigar manufacturing plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in 1864 and used the profits from his business to send Elijah to study mechanical engineering in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Elijah returned to Ypsilanti in 1870 and opened a mechanics shop. He was a prolific inventor and also served as a fireman for the Michigan Central Railroad, whre he was in charge of lubricating all moving parts of the engine. His most famous invention was the lubricating cup. He received a patent for this invention in 1872. Some national and international industries discovered McCoy was black and refused to allow him to lecture to their staffs and students. Moreover, they refused to use his invention and used an inferior imitation instead. Loyal customers who used McCoy's lubricating cup claimed an advantage over their competitors. In their advertising they made sure that everyone knew they had the "real McCoy" and any other brand was a cheap imitation. In all, the "real" McCoy had 87 inventions and 57 patents including the lawn sprinkler. McCoy's other inventions, patents, and credit are lost in the pages of history.
(Taken from Claud Anderson's "Dirty Little Secrets")
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