Elijah McCoy (In History) - May 2, 1843?? – October 10, 1929

Elijah McCoy was probably best known for his locomotive oil-dripping cup invention. The cup fed lubricating oil to machine bearings through a small-bore tube in trains. Other inventors tried to copy McCoy's oil-dripping cup, but none of the other cups worked as well as his. Therefore, customers started demanding "the real McCoy." That is where the expression comes from. Elijah held more than 58 patents, which also included a folding ironing board and an automatic sprinkler.

Sites referencing Elijah McCoy:
http://www.africawithin.com/bios/elijah_mccoy.htm
http://inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventors/a/Elijah_McCoy.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/page/m/mccoy.shtml