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[NOV. 20,
2003]
There are a number of
possible answers to this question, as each McCoy mentioned in this
story achieved some notoriety during his lifetime. Another relevant
question is, "Does the term refer to something or to someone?"
The contestants are…
- Elijah McCoy, a Canadian inventor
- Kid McCoy, a welterweight boxing
champion in 1896
- Other
- None -- or all -- of the above
Or was the "real McCoy" part of the
Hatfields and McCoys feud in Appalachia that ended more than 100
years ago?
Inventor Elijah McCoy was born in
Ontario, Canada, in 1844 to former slaves who had fled from Kentucky
before the Civil War. He was educated in Scotland as a mechanical
engineer and then moved to Michigan. Unable to find a job as an
engineer, he went to work for a local railroad company as an oilman.
McCoy's job involved walking the length
of the train to oil its moving parts, such as the axles and
bearings. Believing that there must be a better way to accomplish
this, he invented a lubricating cup that automatically dropped oil
onto moving parts. His automatic oil cup was requested by engineers
and inspectors until it eventually became standard equipment. It
also became known as "the real McCoy" along the way. Elijah McCoy
earned a total of 57 patents in his lifetime and established the
McCoy Manufacturing Company in Detroit.
Contestant 2 was boxer Kid McCoy, whose
real name was Norman Selby. Born in 1873, he began billing himself
as Kid "The Real" McCoy in the 1890s, after a number of imposters
claimed to be Kid McCoy in order to capitalize on his fame and
fortune. Kid McCoy was a colorful character who always carried a
roll of money with him. He was married 10 times; four of those
marriages were to the same woman.
Then there's the story about a boxing
match in which McCoy fought a deaf fighter. It was during the match
that he found out his opponent was deaf, and he offered his "help"
by signaling that the bell had rung during the third round, when in
fact it hadn't. As his opponent thanked him and turned toward his
corner, McCoy knocked him out.
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second column in this article] |
In a match against a barefoot fighter
in South Africa, McCoy threw tacks into the boxing ring. He won that
bout, too, but he lost in court after shooting his girlfriend. He
served time in San Quentin State Prison and was later paroled. After
his boxing career ended, he went to Hollywood and acted in a few
movies. He died in 1940.
There are additional versions of who
the real McCoy was. The Oxford English Dictionary quoted Robert
Louis Stevenson in 1883 as referring to someone as "The real
Mackay," although it's not clear to whom Stevenson was referring.
There was also an 1880s brand of whiskey that was advertised as "the
real McKay."
Both references occurred a decade
after Elijah invented his self-oiling device for locomotives but
before Kid became famous.
Then there was Prohibition-era smuggler
Billy McCoy, who imported genuine whiskey into the United States
from Canada. Since his whiskey was real rather than the stuff made
by moonshiners, it was known as "the real McCoy." There was also a
cattle baron who Alistair Cooke believed was the real McCoy. Cooke
may have been referring to Charles Goodnight of Texas and the design
of his 1866 chuck wagon, which was named after him (using the common
nickname of "Chuck" for "Charles").
For the real "real McCoy," whoever he
is, his name became a noun, just like Rube Goldberg's name became an
adjective. Yet to this day, nobody knows for sure which person -- or
product -- the term refers to.
It's
possible -- although unlikely -- that "the real McCoy" could have
described more than one person and that each one was given the
nickname independently of each other. Some mysteries are better left
unsolved because it keeps the legend alive and growing -- and
interesting.
[Paul
Niemann]
Invention Mysteries is written each
week by Paul Niemann. He welcomes your comments at
niemann7@aol.com.
Last week's column in LDN:
"What did these inventors do for a living before they became
household names?"
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