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> THE REAL MCCOY

There once was a man named Elijah McCoy. He was born in 1843 in Canada. One day, he wiped the sweat that glistened on his forehead. He looked down at his new invention. He knew it would be important.

Elijah's parents were once slaves. Some slaves ran away from their owners. Many people did not believe in slavery. They helped slaves escape to Canada. It was illegal to own slaves in Canada. The people and paths to Canada were called The Underground Railroad. It was not underground and it was not a railroad, but that is what they called it. Elijah's parents escaped slavery by taking the Underground Railroad to Canada.

Elijah's father was in the army in Canada. As a reward for doing a good job, he was given land. In 1843, Elijah was born. Three years later, they sold the land and moved to Michigan.

They had big plans for Elijah. He was very smart, so he went to study trains and engines in Scotland. When he got back, he got a job working with steam engines. Steam engines were used in trains, ships, and factories.

One problem with steam engines is that they blew up. To keep them from blowing up, they needed oil. At first, a person had to stand by the engine and squirt oil on moving parts. Later, machines were invented to do this by themselves. The machines let oil out through a valve. McCoy had seen one of these machines. McCoy made some changes to one to make it work better. It did. He got a patent for it. He had invented something important.

Trains were very important back then. Elijah's invention helped make trains run faster and better. A big company took his idea and made a lot of money from it. They were very happy with Elijah's invention.

Have you ever heard of the "real McCoy?" If something is genuine or real, people say that it is the "real McCoy." Some people think that the saying started with Elijah. As the story goes, Elijah's invention was much better than the other inventions. When people would get an oil valve, they would ask "is this the real McCoy?" This might be where that saying came from.

Elijah McCoy lived to invent many other things and received fifty-seven patents for different machines. One of them was a lawn sprinkler. He encouraged young people to try really hard. He also wanted them to use their imagination. "If you do this," he was quoted as saying, "you can accomplish anything.