The year is 1844.

George and Mildred McCoy have just escaped slavery in Kentucky, and travelled via the Underground Railway to Ontario.

They settle there and have a little bubs. His name is Elijah.

Reader, Elijah is The Real McCoy.

(bless you, Ypsilanti Historical Museum & Archives, for this wonderful image).

Elijah McCoy was a mechanical engineer everyone! And explicitly not a bag of crisps!

Paging @RAEngNews because you'll love this x

At the tender age of 15, Elijah was sent to Scotlandia for an apprenticeship and to study mechanical engineering at @EdinburghUni.

After this, Elijah tried to find work in the US, but racism denied him many engineering jobs, and instead he worked as a fireman and an oiler.

In 1873, our Elijah realised that trains could be made more efficient!

He came up with the lubricating cup to work on steam engine cylinders, which distributes oil evenly and automatically over the engine's moving parts.

It is a very smart thing.

The lubricating cup was a Very Big Deal.

We have several engines at Leeds Industrial Museum & Thwaite Watermill that couldn’t work without it.

The cup was a *BIG* success!

Engineers would ask for it using the McCoy name to avoid being sold an inferior copy of Elijah's invention.

Hence, requests for 'the real McCoy', and why today the phrase is still used to describe anything as the real deal.

Elijah continued to invent until late in life, and had 57 patents for a whoooooooole bunch o'stuff - including the folding ironing board and lawn sprinkler.

The real McCoy! The! Real! One!

in slightly related but also entirely different news, we're now off to get some crisps